SONNET - 82 SUMMARY

 Sonnet No 82:

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse,
And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing every book.
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Finding thy worth a limit past my praise;
And therefore art enforced to seek anew
Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.
And do so, love; yet when they have devised,
What strained touches rhetoric can lend,
Thou truly fair, wert truly sympathized
In true plain words, by thy true-telling friend;
   And their gross painting might be better used
   Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abused.

Not being married to the poet's muse, the youth can honourably respond to other poets' muses without being accused of infidelity. But the youth shouldn't be too attracted to flashy and unrealistic rhetoric. The poet's own simple truthfulness more accurately represents the youth's beauty. Other poets only need to use artificial rhetoric to enhance anaemic figures. The poet admits that the youth has had no commitment to his poetry and can therefore survey, without guilt, the words of dedication other writers use about the beautiful subjects who grace their books. The poet says that the youth is as knowledgeable as beautiful, and the youth's qualities are beyond any skills that the poet has to praise them. Therefore the youth is forced to look again for a fresher representative of these modern literary times. So do that, Love. And yet, when that new poet has invented whatever elaborate devices he can borrow rhetoric, the youth would - because the youth is truly beautiful - have been accurately represented by the true plain words of youth's honest friend.  His exaggerated painting might be better employed on subjects who need colour: in the youth it's a misuse.

Reference: shakespeare-sonnets.com