When My Love Swears She Is Made of Truth - Sonnet No. 138 by Shakespeare Anthony Quayle

Song Meaning

The lyrics immediately plunge into a relationship built on a fascinating paradox: the speaker believes his lover's claims of truth, even though he "know she lies." This isn't blind faith, but a conscious participation in a shared illusion. It sets up a dynamic where honesty is actively suppressed for mutual comfort. The central tension arises from both parties' desire to maintain a flattering fiction. The lover pretends the speaker is an "untutored youth," while the speaker acknowledges his "days are past the best." This mutual pretense allows them to avoid the uncomfortable realities of age and imperfection, creating a fragile peace where "simple truth suppressed" becomes the foundation of their interaction. The craft here is particularly sharp in its use of irony and wordplay. The speaker observes that "love's best habit is in seeming trust," highlighting the performative aspect of their affection. The concluding couplet, "Therefore I lie with her and she with me / And in our faults by lies we flattered be," brilliantly uses the double meaning of "lie" to encapsulate both their physical intimacy and their shared deception, revealing how their mutual untruths serve to soothe their vanities. Ultimately, these lyrics are effective because they dissect the intricate, often uncomfortable compromises people make in relationships. They expose how a desire for flattery and an aversion to harsh truths can lead to a complex dance of knowing deception, where both parties willingly participate in a charade that, in its own way, sustains their connection.