Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;
All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown’d;
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;
Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The solve is this, that thou dost common grow.
A slight departure from the previous two sonnets, in that, although dealing with worldly impressions and public opinions, as though referring to the judgements made in 67 & 68, it is not so slavishly adulatory. It continues the argument of the youth’s great beauty, acknowledged by all, and then raises the question of his moral condition, hinting that all is far from what it seems superficially. The precise meaning of the conclusion is uncertain. It could be that he is criticised for resorting to harlots (common women), or because he is spending time in ale-houses in the company of common people. The meaning is probably ambiguous deliberately, and gives scope for both the youth and the common reader to interpret as either should think fit.
Sonnet LXIX
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