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He starts off by saying that he's done a worthy thing, but it's even better to not brag about it. Then in the second stanza, he says that it's foolish and "madness" to brag about it, because it's much like bragging about having the skill to cut a specular stone when specular stones don't exist anymore.

Then he says that it wouldn't matter if he bragged about because people wouldn't heed what he says and simply go on loving as they have been doing, which is to place more importance on outward appearances than inner virtue.

In the next stanza, he says that a man who loves someone for who they are will not care about outward appearances. Anyone who pays more attention to someone's skin or the color of their skin simply loves the "oldest clothes" of inner virtue, which do not amount to much.

If you love them, despite what anyone else says, and you don't brag about the great deed you've done, then you've done a "braver thing/ Than all the Worthies did."

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14y ago

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