My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear:
That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
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The poet excuses his previous silence. Love has increased in strength, even though declarations and utterances of love have become fewer. Affection becomes vulgarised by too frequent protestations. Sonnets following each other in rapid succession were suitable at the commencement of the friendship, just as the nightingale fills the groves with her music on the approach of summer. And the poet had paused in his song, as she does when summer advances, not wishing to weary his friend.