Shakespeare's opening disclaimer asserts that his Muse is not like some other Muse that is "Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse". To "stir", as well as meaning to excite passion like a Muse, connects with "painted" since paint is stirred. Shakespeare derides the "vain" sonneteer who searches for images even from the heavens to "ornament" his comparison and who will "rehearse" or 'describe at length' his "fair" by comparison with every other "fair" to make a "couplement", either a coupling in a comparison or a couplet or stanza. The repetition of "fair" echoes Sonnet 18's "And every fair from fair some time declines".