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Herbert SONNET NO. 8       Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly,     Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights with joy,     Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly,     Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy?     If the true concord of well tuned sounds,     By unions married  ,do offend thine ear,     They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds,     In singleness the parts  that thou  should'st bear.     Marke how one string-sweet husband to another,     Strike each in each by mutual ordering     Resembling sire and child and happy mother     Who all in one -one pleasing note do sing:     Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,     Sings this to thee-thou single  will prove none.

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    Note the repetitions, we find-thou, thou, thou, thou, thou,
  sweets, sweets, joy, joy, one, one, one.
  7th and 8th Lines. " Confounds in singleness".     Here " con-
                     founds " appears to mean " destroys ",
                     in the same way that a player would destroy
                     the music by omitting the notes of all
                     strings but one so that Herbert would
                     destroy the music of life by remaining
                     single when a wife and child are necessary
                     elements of the harmony of life.
    Here speaking of music-Bacon tells Herbert that if he does
  not care for music-the true concord of well tuned sounds by
  unions married, and that they offend his ear, music will chide
  (rebuke) him because he confounds (defeats) by remaining
  single the parts (talents) which he should bear.  He tells him
  that a father, child and mother are in harmony like the strings
  of a musical instrument in harmony all singing a pleasing note.
  And that Herbert if he remains unmarried will prove to be
  nothing.
  
  

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