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Muse
SONNET NO. 102
My love is strengthen'd though more weak in seeming;
I love not less though less the show appear;
That love is merchandised whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere.
Our love was new and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
As Philomel in summers front doth sing
And stops his pipe in growth of riper days;
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight;
Therefore like her I sometimes hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song.
Note the repetition of the following words, we find-love,
love, love, tongue, tongue, summer, summer.
Here Bacon tells us that his love is for his poetical work.
He writes that his love, although it appears weak in appearance,
is strengthened. He does not love " the show "(entertainment)
which is published by the owner for gain (merchandised).
When he was young he greeted his muse with his lays (poems)
when Philomel (the nightingale) sang in the summer, but when
the winter comes the nightingale ceases to sing and he likewise
sometimes holds his tongue.
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