Sonnet 105 argues that the speaker’s love is not idolatry because he praises one constant subject in one constant way, yet the defense itself borrows the language of religious devotion and ends by claiming that the young man unites three virtues that have never before lived in one person.
Sonnet 105: Full Poem
Let not my love be call’d idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
Therefore my verse to constancy confin’d,
One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument,
Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words;
And in this change is my invention spent,
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.
Fair, kind, and true, have often liv’d alone,
Which three till now never kept seat in one.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 105 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 105 Means
The speaker anticipates a charge: that his love is “idolatry,” the worship of a false god, and that his beloved is being treated as an idol. He denies it, and his reason is that his songs and praises are all addressed to one person, about one person, always the same.
The second quatrain explains the sameness. The young man is kind today and kind tomorrow, constant in a wonderful excellence. Because the subject is constant, the verse is “to constancy confin’d”: it expresses one thing and leaves out “difference,” meaning variety.
The third quatrain names that one thing. The speaker’s whole subject is “Fair, kind, and true,” and his skill goes into finding new words for those three qualities. The phrase is repeated, and then the speaker says that three themes in one give his invention wide scope.
The couplet makes the poem’s larger claim. Beauty, kindness, and truth have often existed separately, in different people, but until now the three have not lived together in one.
Sonnet 105 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 105 is a poem about repetition that defends itself by repeating, and its themes come from the religious terms in which it frames that defense.
Love and Worship
“Idolatry” was a serious charge in a Protestant country, where the worship of images was condemned. The speaker raises the charge himself and answers it, but his answer sounds like the language of worship. Lines 3 and 4 insist on one object of praise, “To one, of one, still such, and ever so,” and many readers hear in that line an echo of the language of prayer. Shakespeare plays with the same idea in Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet calls Romeo’s “gracious self” “the god of my idolatry.” The sonnet treats love and devotion as close neighbors, and the closeness is part of its wit.
Constancy in Love and in Verse
The poem links the young man’s character to the speaker’s style. Because the young man is “Still constant,” the verse is “to constancy confin’d.” This answers a criticism the speaker raised against himself in Sonnet 76, which asks, “Why write I still all one, ever the same,” and replies that “you and love are still my argument.” Sonnet 105 makes sameness a virtue: a faithful poet writing about a faithful subject should not keep changing his tune.
Three Virtues in One
The triad “Fair, kind, and true” stands for beauty, goodness, and truth or fidelity. The speaker claims that the young man unites what is usually divided, and the phrase “Three themes in one” is widely read as glancing at the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, three persons in one God. That echo makes the defense against idolatry more daring, since the speaker answers the charge of false worship by describing the young man in terms borrowed from theology.
Form and Language
Sonnet 105 enacts the sameness it describes, with repeated words, a refrain, and a series of threes.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem follows the usual pattern of three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter, though several lines bend the meter. Line 14, “Which three till now never kept seat in one,” most naturally puts a stress on the first syllable of “never,” inverting the expected rhythm in the middle of the line. The rhyme of “excellence” and “difference” falls on unstressed final syllables, a weak rhyme, and “alone” with “one” is approximate to a modern ear.
Repetition as Method
The poem is full of deliberate repetition. “One” appears in lines 4, 8, 12, and 14, “kind” opens and closes line 5, and “wondrous” appears in lines 6 and 12. Lines 9 and 10 both begin with “Fair, kind, and true,” and line 13 says it a third time. The repetition is a form of anaphora and refrain, and it makes the poem demonstrate its own claim that the verse is “One thing expressing.”
Patterns of Three
Threes run through the poem. Line 4 has a string of short phrases, the triad “Fair, kind, and true” is repeated three times, and lines 12 and 14 speak of “Three themes in one” and “Which three.” The patterning supports the poem’s argument that three qualities can be held in one subject, as three phrases are held in one line.
“Argument,” “Invention,” and “Difference”
The poem uses the vocabulary of the writer’s craft. “Argument” means subject, “invention” is the poet’s power to find new material, and “difference” means variety. In these terms, the speaker admits a narrow subject but claims that his invention is fully “spent” in varying the words, which is a modest description of the craft that goes into the sequence.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 105 defends the speaker against idolatry with an argument that, read closely, confirms the charge, and the poem seems aware of the joke.
The logic of the first quatrain does not quite hold. Idolatry is the worship of the wrong object, not the worship of many objects. To reply that one’s praises are all “To one, of one” is to describe monotheism, and monotheism directed at a young man is exactly what the charge alleges. Asked whether this is worship, the speaker in effect replies that it is faithful worship, which is a witty evasion rather than a refutation. Many readers take this as deliberate, a poem that enjoys its own sophistry.
The second quatrain shifts the subject from the speaker to the young man. “Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind” puts the young man’s virtue first and draws the style from it. That move is important for a reader who has followed the sequence, because elsewhere the young man’s kindness and truth are doubted. Sonnets such as Sonnet 93, Sonnet 94, and Sonnet 95 raise the possibility that his fair appearance hides a fault. Sonnet 105 sets those doubts aside and asserts constancy, which gives its praise a slightly willed quality.
The third quatrain is about craft. “Varying to other words” is a fair description of what the sonnets often do: return to the same few subjects and find new phrasing for them. The speaker admits that his range is narrow but claims that “Three themes in one” afford “wondrous scope.” The phrase is both a boast and a defense of the whole sequence’s method.
The couplet moves from the speaker’s verse to history. “Fair, kind, and true, have often liv’d alone”: beauty without goodness, goodness without fidelity. “Which three till now never kept seat in one.” The claim is extravagant, as love poetry often is, and its rhythm stumbles slightly over “never,” as if the line strains to say it. The young man is offered as a new event in the world, a single person who holds three virtues at once, and the poem’s repetitions become a fitting response to something the speaker presents as unprecedented.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 105, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 105 Addressed To?
The poem is spoken to an implied listener who might accuse the speaker of idolatry. Its subject is the young man of the Fair Youth sonnets, referred to as “my love” and “my beloved.”
What Does “Idolatry” Mean in Sonnet 105?
Idolatry is the worship of an idol or false god. The speaker worries that his constant praise might look like worshipping the young man, and he argues that it is not.
What Does “Fair, Kind, and True” Mean?
The phrase names three virtues: beauty, kindness or goodness, and truth or faithfulness. The speaker says these three are his whole subject and he claims that no one before the young man has united them.
Where Is the Volta in Sonnet 105?
At line 13, “Fair, kind, and true, have often liv’d alone.” The poem turns from describing its own repetitive style to a claim about the young man’s rarity in history.
Is Sonnet 105 About the Trinity?
Not directly, but many readers hear an allusion to it. “Three themes in one” and the repeated triad recall the Christian idea of three persons in one God, which adds wit to a poem that denies treating the young man as a god.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets share this poem’s defense of sameness and its near-religious praise.