Rhymes:
A group
- O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
- Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
B group
- For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
- So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
C group
- Make answer, Muse: wilt thou not haply say
- Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay;
D group
- 'Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix'd;
- But best is best, if never intermix'd?'
E group
- Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
- To make him much outlive a gilded tomb,
F group
- Excuse not silence so; for't lies in thee
- And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Iambic pentameter:
In line 3, the stressed words are: truth, beauty, love, depends.
In line 6, the stressed words are: needs, colour(x2),.
In line 11, the stressed words are: make, much, outlive, and gilded.
Sonnet Analysis:
In the sonnet Shakespeare writes of how the Muse is not better than him and how better and best should not be intermixed, and at the end of the poem, in a cocky fashion, he writes that he is willing to teach her his ways.