I must complain yet do enjoy

Song Meaning

The speaker is caught in a bitter paradox, simultaneously loving and resenting his beloved. He "must complain, yet do enjoy" her beauty, even as it causes him profound distress. This opening sets a tone of conflicted desire and internal struggle, immediately pulling the listener into a complex emotional landscape. The core tension here stems from the woman's overwhelming physical appeal. The speaker laments that nature, in making her "too, too beautiful of hue," had "no leisure left to make her true." This isn't a simple complaint about infidelity; it's a profound, almost mythological grievance that her very perfection in beauty inherently precludes fidelity or trustworthiness. The repetition throughout these lyrics amplifies the speaker's obsessive focus. Phrases like "enjoy, enjoy my love" and "she hath more beauty, she hath more beauty" echo a mind wrestling with an inescapable truth. This insistent rhythm underscores the speaker's internal loop, where his admiration for her "divinest arts" is inextricably linked to his growing suspicion. What makes these lyrics hit hard is the speaker's raw, possessive honesty. He admits wishing she were "less fair" but immediately dismisses it as "repugnant to my own desires." This self-awareness, coupled with the final, cutting judgment that she has "more beauty than becomes the chaste," reveals a deeply flawed yet compelling narrator whose jealousy warps admiration into a harsh accusation.