Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
And all my soul and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp’d with tann’d antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
‘Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.
This sonnet may be a response to criticism of the three jealousy sonnets preceding, 58, 59, 61. Perhaps the poet had been accused by the youth of indulging in extremes of self-love, and this is the poet’s reply to the charge. In effect he acknowledges his guilt, admitting that he is indeed absorbed in a narcissistic orgy of self admiration, but he gives an ingenious twist to the ending by the discovery that his self-love is in fact love of the youth. This is yet another example of the theme of the oneness of lovers and the intertwining of hearts, here put to good use in the poet’s defence of his excessive jealousy and self-preoccupation.
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