Describe the beauty of the bride in a wedding song

In Sonnet Three, the poet admires his “souerayne beauty” (his beloved), comparing her to a light of heavenly fire that he cannot endure to look upon for long. Speech fails him, so he turns to writing (poetry) to express “the wonder that my wit cannot endite.” (line 14)

In Sonnet Eight, the light of his beloved’s fire is used to show how the speaker cherishes his beloved. Addressing her directly, he tells her how her beauty stops his tongue but teaches his “hart to speake” (line 10); she is the inspiration for these poems, which are the only way he can express his love for her. He holds her beauty to be universal, for “Dark is the world, where your light shined neuer;/well is he borne that may behold you euer” (lines 13-14).

Sonnet Fifteen compares the beloved’s virtues to worldly riches, particularly those treasures in which merchants trade. Rather than describe her beauty as superior to earthly riches, he makes each aspect of her charm a direct comparison to a particular item of value. Here eyes are sapphires, her lips are rubies, her teeth are pearls, her forehead is ivory, her hair is finest gold, and her hands are silver. He ends, however, with the greatest beauty (and greatest treasure” which “but few behold” (line 13): her mind, which is “adorned with vertues manifold” (line 14). Although praising her physical beauty for most of the poem, he considers her mind to be the “fairest” treasure she possesses (line 13).