Sonnet 23

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Sonnet 23 in the 1609 Quarto
Q1 Q2 Q3 C As an unperfect actor on the stage, Who with his fear is put besides his part, Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage, Whose strength’s abundance weakens his own heart; So I, for fear of trust, forget to say The perfect ceremony of love’s right, And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay, O’ercharged with burthen of mine own love’s might. O, let my books be then the eloquence And dumb presagers of my speaking breast; Who plead for love, and look for recompense, More than that tongue that more hath more express’d. O, learn to read what silent love hath writ: To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit. 4 8 12 14 —William Shakespeare[1]

Sonnet 23 is one of a sequence of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and is a part of the Fair Youth sequence.

In the sonnet, the speaker is not able to adequately speak of his love, because of the intensity of his feelings. He compares himself to an actor onstage who is struck by fear and cannot perform his part, or like a ferocious beast or a passionate human filled with rage, and whose over-abundant emotion defeats the expressing of it. He forgets the correct words that the rituals of love deserve. The passion of his love seems to fall apart, as it is over-burdened with emotion. So he encourages his young friend to read and then respond to the poet's written expressions of his love. The sonnet ends with the paradoxes — books that cannot speak will speak, if eyes will hear.^[2]

The metaphor of the actor has drawn biographical interest and comment. Shakespeare uses a metaphor from the theatre to express the idea of the speaker's impotence in performing the "ceremony of love’s right" (line 6). Instead, the lover must read beyond such a performance, and read “between the lines” to understand the poet's love, as it is expressed in the silences between the words. This sonnet seems to suggest the limits of language.^[3]