Sonnet 85 argues that the speaker’s silence is not a failure of love but a form of it: while other poets write polished praise, his love speaks in thought, and the young man should value him for what he thinks rather than what he says.
Sonnet 85: Full Poem
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still,
While comments of your praise richly compiled,
Reserve their character with golden quill,
And precious phrase by all the Muses filed.
I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words,
And like unlettered clerk still cry ‘Amen’
To every hymn that able spirit affords
In polished form of well-refined pen.
Hearing you praised, I say “’tis so, ’tis true,”
And to the most of praise add something more;
But that is in my thought, whose love to you,
Though words come hindmost, holds his rank before.
Then others, for the breath of words respect,
Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 85 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 85 Means
The speaker’s Muse is “tongue-tied.” Out of good manners, she “holds her still,” keeping quiet. Meanwhile, other writers are producing “comments of your praise richly compiled,” lavish written tributes to the young man. Their words “Reserve their character with golden quill,” preserving their lettering with a golden pen, and their “precious phrase” has been “filed,” or polished smooth, “by all the Muses.”
The second quatrain sets thinking against writing: “I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words.” The speaker compares himself to an “unlettered clerk,” a church clerk without learning, whose part in the service is to respond. He can do nothing but “cry ‘Amen'” to “every hymn” that some “able spirit,” some gifted poet, offers “In polished form of well-refined pen.” The others compose, and he agrees.
The third quatrain starts as more of the same. When the speaker hears the young man praised, he says, “’tis so, ’tis true,” and to the highest praise he adds “something more.” Then comes the turn: “But that is in my thought.” His additions never reach paper. Yet his love, “Though words come hindmost,” though its words arrive last, “holds his rank before,” keeping its place at the front of the line.
The couplet draws the conclusion. Let the young man respect the other poets “for the breath of words,” for language that is ultimately only air, and respect the speaker “for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect,” for thoughts that are silent but speak in substance.
Sonnet 85 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 85 is a defense of silence, and each of its themes is part of that defense.
Silence as Love
The speaker’s silence has become an issue between him and the young man. In Sonnet 83, he reports that “This silence for my sin you did impute,” that the young man has blamed him for it. Sonnet 85 answers the charge by turning silence into evidence of feeling. The idea appears earlier in the sequence too: Sonnet 23 asks the beloved to “learn to read what silent love hath writ.” In both poems, the lover’s quiet is offered as a deeper kind of speech, one that needs a willing reader.
Courtesy as Rivalry
The speaker never attacks the other poets directly. He calls their work “richly compiled,” their quills “golden,” their phrases “precious,” their form “polished,” and their pens “well-refined.” The praise is real, but the vocabulary is telling. Gold, precious stones, and polish are costly surfaces, and the cluster of them hints that the rivals’ verse is more ornament than feeling. The speaker can seem generous while making that suggestion, which is a kind of rivalry carried on by courteous means.
Words Against Thoughts
The poem divides the world in two: “I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words.” Words are “breath,” quickly gone; thoughts are “dumb,” but they speak “in effect.” The same division runs through the Rival Poet group. In Sonnet 80, the speaker says the rival’s praise makes him “tongue-tied speaking of your fame,” and the first line of Sonnet 85 uses the same word. Here, though, being tongue-tied is no longer only a weakness. It has become a position the speaker can defend.
Form and Language
Sonnet 85 is a poem about not speaking, written in a careful and self-conscious language of writing.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem follows the usual Shakespearean pattern of three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter. Its rhymes are full ones. One pairing is especially apt: “Amen,” stressed on its second syllable, ends line 6 and is answered in line 8 by “pen.” The clerk’s response and the poet’s instrument rhyme with each other, so that the speaker’s “Amen” literally answers the other poet’s pen.
The Unlettered Clerk
In church services of the period, a parish clerk led the congregation’s responses, including the “Amen” that closed a prayer. Shakespeare uses the role in Richard II, when the king, about to give up his crown, finds that no one will answer his blessing: “God save the King! Will no man say amen? / Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.” Calling the clerk “unlettered” adds a joke, since a clerk was supposed to be a man of some learning. The speaker casts himself as the humblest figure in the room, the one who can only agree.
One Muse and Many
Line 1 gives the speaker a single “tongue-tied Muse.” Line 4 gives the rivals the help of “all the Muses,” the whole company of the classical goddesses of the arts. The contrast is comic in its scale: one silent Muse against a full chorus. It also sets up the poem’s argument, since the speaker will claim that his one Muse, silent as she is, serves the young man better.
“Dumb Thoughts, Speaking in Effect”
The last line ends on a paradox: thoughts that are “dumb” yet “speaking.” “In effect” meant in reality or in substance, as opposed to in appearance. The phrase claims that the speaker’s love does real work even though nothing is said, and it asks the young man to judge by effect rather than by display.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 85 turns a confession of inadequacy into a claim of precedence, using the forms of humility to outrank the rivals.
The key words of the third quatrain come from processions and armies: “hindmost,” “rank,” and “before.” In a formal procession, position mattered, and the speaker’s complaint throughout the Rival Poet group is that he has been pushed to the back. Here he accepts that his words come “hindmost” and then insists that his love “holds his rank before.” The poem quietly reorders the procession. The rivals walk in front with their golden quills, but the speaker’s love, invisible, stands ahead of them.
The clerk’s “Amen” is a better image than it first looks. “Amen” was understood as a word of assent, meaning “so be it” or “truly,” and in line 9 the speaker translates it into English: “’tis so, ’tis true.” Agreement is all a clerk contributes. Yet the speaker adds that he puts “something more” onto “the most of praise,” the very highest praise the others can offer. The humble clerk, saying almost nothing, claims to outbid the poets he is echoing.
There is an obvious difficulty, and the poem seems aware of it. Sonnet 85 is itself made of words. A poet who praises silence in fourteen rhymed lines has not quite stayed silent, and the polish of lines like “In polished form of well-refined pen” shows that the speaker can do what he attributes to others. The couplet’s phrase “speaking in effect” may be the answer. The poem is the effect: the visible trace of a love that, the speaker claims, mostly goes unsaid.
The poem ends with an instruction, and the instruction places the burden on the young man. “Then others, for the breath of words respect, / Me for my dumb thoughts.” The young man is asked to read past what is said to what is meant, which is exactly the skill that a flattered patron might lack. If he values the rivals more, the poem implies, the fault is in his reading. Sonnet 86 will take that implication further and lay the speaker’s silence directly at the young man’s door.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 85, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 85 Addressed To?
The young man of the Fair Youth sonnets. Sonnets 1 to 126 are generally read as addressed to him, and this poem belongs to the Rival Poet group, Sonnets 78 to 86, about other poets who praise him.
What Does “Tongue-Tied Muse” Mean?
It means the speaker’s poetic inspiration is unable or unwilling to speak. The speaker says she “holds her still” out of “manners,” a polite restraint rather than an empty mind.
What Is the “Unlettered Clerk” in Sonnet 85?
A church clerk without learning. A clerk’s role was to lead the responses, and the speaker compares himself to one who can do nothing but say “Amen” to the hymns that other, abler poets compose.
Why Is the Speaker Silent in Sonnet 85?
He presents the rivals’ praise as more polished than anything he could write. His answer is that his love lives in his thoughts, and that thoughts which go unspoken can still rank ahead of eloquent words.
Where Is the Volta in Sonnet 85?
At line 11, with “But that is in my thought.” The “something more” that the speaker adds to the young man’s praise turns out to be unspoken, and from there the poem argues for silent love. The couplet then states the conclusion.
Related Sonnets
Three nearby sonnets share this poem’s concern with silence, rivalry, and praise.