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.
In plain English
Don't mistake my devotion for worship of an idol. My love isn't blind obsession—it's grounded in real qualities that remain constant. I sing the same praise over and over not because I'm trapped, but because the beloved genuinely possesses these virtues day after day.
My poetry focuses on just three things: fairness, kindness, and truth. I ring changes on these three qualities, finding new angles and fresh language, but they're always the same core praise. This narrow focus might look like I lack imagination, but it actually lets me explore something rare: a single person who embodies all three virtues at once.
Historically, people have found these qualities scattered across different individuals. But this person brings all three together in one body—something remarkable enough to justify a lifetime of songs about the same three words.
