Summary

Through a series of pleas, the speaker entreats an unnamed addressee to allow him to love: “For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love” (1). The speaker begins his five-stanza argument by listing his shortcomings, such as “my palsy,” my gout,” “five gray hairs,” and “ruined fortune flout” (2-3). He encourages the critic to pay attention to those markings of old age rather than remain skeptical of his love. The speaker attempts to distract the critic by telling them to “take you a course, get you a place” and “your mind with arts improve" (4-5). Next, the speaker tells the critic to shift his contemplations to "the king's real, / Or his stamped face," anything that will persuade the critic to leave the speaker alone (7).

The speaker frames the second stanza with a rhetorical question, “who's injured by my love?” (10). The speaker argues that...