Oh never weep for love that’s dead / Since love is seldom true.
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 2)

Importance: These are the opening lines of the poem. They help establish the speaker's argument – not to be sad over lost love – and also set up the dynamic between speaker and addressee as one person giving advice to another who is, presumably, weeping over love. That the speaker refers to love as "dead" adds gravity to its loss, suggesting that the speaker herself has experienced the pain of such rejection.

But changes his fashion from blue to red, / From brightest red to blue.
-- Speaker (Lines 3 – 4)

Importance: Here, the speaker explains that love is not to be trusted because it can don a different "outfit" at any point, characterizing love as fickle and unreliable. The speaker also genders love as male, disrupting the Petrarchan tradition that typically associated cruel love with women.

Then harbour no smile on your bonny face / To win...
-- Speaker (Lines 7 –8)