Sonnet 84 claims that the highest praise of the young man is the simplest, “you alone are you,” and that the flattery he receives is poor because he loves it too much.
Sonnet 84: Full Poem
Who is it that says most, which can say more
Than this rich praise, that you alone are you,
In whose confine immurèd is the store
Which should example where your equal grew?
Lean penury within that pen doth dwell
That to his subject lends not some small glory;
But he that writes of you, if he can tell
That you are you, so dignifies his story.
Let him but copy what in you is writ,
Not making worse what nature made so clear,
And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,
Making his style admired everywhere.
You to your beauteous blessings add a curse,
Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 84 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 84 Means
Sonnet 84 is a lesson in how to praise the young man, delivered to the poets competing for his favor, and it ends by turning on the young man himself.
The first quatrain asks a question. Which poet, even the one who says the most, can say more than this: that you alone are you? Inside the young man, as if walled up in a treasury, is the whole stock of qualities that would be needed to make his equal. Since that stock exists nowhere else, nothing can be compared with him, and the only accurate description is the plainest one.
The second quatrain states a general rule and then reverses it. A pen must be poor indeed if it cannot lend its subject a little glory, since that is what poets normally do. But with this subject the direction runs the other way. Any writer who can simply say that “you are you” is dignified by the subject, not the other way around.
The third quatrain turns the rule into instructions. The writer should copy what nature has already written in the young man, without spoiling what nature made so clear. A faithful copy, a “counterpart,” will make the writer famous and have his style admired everywhere. Good poetry, on this view, is transcription.
The couplet changes the subject without warning. The young man adds a curse to his blessings, because he is “fond on praise,” meaning foolishly eager for it. His appetite encourages poets to flatter him, and flattery is worse praise than the truth. For twelve lines the problem seemed to be bad writers. In the last two, it is the reader they are writing for.
Sonnet 84 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 84 is a short theory of praise, and each of its themes is a rule in that theory.
Praise Without Comparison
Most love poetry works by comparison: eyes like stars, lips like coral, a face like a summer’s day. Sonnet 84 rules comparison out. If the young man has no equal, anything he is compared to must fall short, so the only true statement is that he is himself. The idea runs through the sonnets. Sonnet 18 tests a comparison and finds it wanting, and Sonnet 130 mocks poets who praise their mistresses with “false compare.” Sonnet 84 goes furthest, reducing praise to a statement of identity.
Poetry as Copying
The third quatrain treats the young man as a text nature has already written. The poet’s job is not to invent or decorate but to copy “what in you is writ” without “making worse” what is there. This is a deliberately modest idea of poetry, and a pointed one. The Rival Poet sonnets repeatedly accuse the rival of ornament and exaggeration: Sonnet 82 calls his praise “gross painting,” and Sonnet 83 says his efforts to “give life” produce a tomb. Sonnet 84 offers the alternative: an exact copy, a counterpart.
The Corrupting Love of Flattery
The couplet names the young man’s flaw. He is “fond on praise,” and “fond” in Shakespeare’s English often means foolish as well as affectionate. A patron who wants to be flattered will be flattered, and flattery by definition is praise that has stopped being true. So his appetite degrades the very thing it craves. The theme reaches well beyond this poem; it is the problem at the start of King Lear, where a father who demands extravagant declarations of love rewards the flatterers and banishes the daughter who says too little.
Form and Language
Sonnet 84 is written in the language of wealth and poverty, and its form saves the decisive blow for the last two lines.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Line 3 needs “immurèd” to be spoken with three syllables, “im-MUR-ed,” to fill out its ten beats, which is why modern editions often mark the final syllable. Lines 6 and 8 end on feminine rhymes, “glory” and “story,” with an extra unstressed syllable. The soft endings suit the quatrain’s argument about lending a little glory, and they make the hard, single-syllable rhyme of “curse” and “worse” in the couplet land more heavily.
Wealth and Poverty
The poem’s vocabulary is economic. The praise is “rich,” the young man’s qualities are a “store” locked inside him, a failing pen suffers “lean penury,” and a good one “lends” glory. The pun in line 5 ties the images together: “penury” dwells in the “pen.” The subject is the treasury, and the poets are borrowers. This continues the accounting language of Sonnet 83, with its “tender” and “debt.”
Tautology as Praise
“You alone are you” is a tautology, a statement that is true by definition and seems to say nothing. The poem presents it as the richest praise available. The trick works because of “alone”: the claim is not just that the young man is himself but that no one else is anything like him. The phrase returns in line 8 as “you are you,” so the poem’s key idea is stated twice in the fewest possible words, as if to model the plainness it recommends.
Verbs Made From Nouns
Two ordinary nouns are used as verbs. In line 4, “example” means to serve as a model, and in line 11, “fame” means to make famous. Both are compressed and slightly startling, and both concern copying and reputation: the model that would be needed to make the young man’s equal, and the fame that comes from copying him well.
A Textual Note
The 1609 Quarto prints line 3 as “In whose confine immured if the store,” which makes no sense. Editors agree that “if” is a printer’s error for “is,” and modern texts correct it. The Quarto also spells “than” as “then” in line 2, a common spelling of the time rather than a different word.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 84 begins as an auction of praise and ends by revealing who keeps raising the bids.
Look at the first line’s measuring words: “says most,” “say more.” The poets are competing on quantity, each trying to outbid the others with bigger and richer praise. The poem’s answer is to make the smallest possible bid and call it the largest. “You alone are you” cannot be topped, because it leaves nothing to add; any further ornament would only move the description away from the truth. In an auction where everyone else is inflating, the speaker wins by refusing to inflate.
The couplet then asks why the auction exists at all. Poets inflate their praise because the young man rewards inflation. He is “fond on praise,” and his fondness sets the market price. The last line closes the measuring language the first line opened: the poem began with “most” and “more,” and it ends with “worse.” More praise, bought by an appetite for praise, becomes worse praise. The rival’s flattery, which Sonnets 82 and 83 attacked, turns out to be a symptom. The cause is the patron.
This is the boldest move in the Rival Poet group. Until now, the speaker has blamed the rival, defended his own silence, and flattered the young man by insisting no poem could match him. Here, for two lines, he tells the young man a truth about himself that no flatterer would dare. That rebuke is, in fact, the demonstration of his whole argument. The honest copy of the young man, “what in you is writ,” includes his faults. A poet who only praised him would be making him better than nature made him, which is exactly the “making worse” the poem forbids.
So the couplet is not a lapse in the poem’s praise but its fulfillment. Sonnet 84 practices the plain truth-telling it preaches, and the cost of that honesty is visible in what comes next. Sonnet 85 retreats into a “tongue-tied Muse,” content to think good thoughts while others write good words.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 84, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 84 Addressed To?
The young man of the Fair Youth sonnets. The first twelve lines also speak past him to the poets who compete to praise him, including the Rival Poet.
What Does “You Alone Are You” Mean?
That the young man is unique. No one else is like him, so he can’t be compared to anything, and simply saying he is himself is the most accurate and therefore the richest praise.
What Does “Being Fond on Praise” Mean?
Being too eager for praise. “Fond” often meant foolish in Shakespeare’s time as well as affectionate. The young man’s love of compliments encourages flattery, which makes the praise he receives worse.
What Is the Volta in Sonnet 84?
Line 13. After twelve lines about how to praise the young man, the couplet abruptly blames him, saying he adds “a curse” to his blessings by loving praise too much.
Is There an Error in the Original Text of Sonnet 84?
Yes. The 1609 Quarto reads “immured if the store” in line 3. Editors treat “if” as a misprint for “is,” and modern editions print “immurèd is the store.”
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets from the Rival Poet group surround this one and carry its argument about praise.