From fairest creatures we desire increas… That thereby beauty’s rose might never d… But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright…
When forty winters shall besiege thy bro… And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s fi… Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on no… Will be a tatter’d weed, of small worth… Then being ask’d where all thy beauty li…
Look in thy glass, and tell the face tho… Now is the time that face should form an… Whose fresh repair if now thou not renew… Thou dost beguile the world, unbless som… For where is she so fair whose unear’d w…
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spen… Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy? Nature’s bequest gives nothing but doth… And being frank she lends to those are f… Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou a…
Those hours, that with gentle work did f… The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwe… Will play the tyrants to the very same And that unfair which fairly doth excel; For never-resting time leads summer on
Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface… In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill’… Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some… With beauty’s treasure ere it be self-ki… That use is not forbidden usury,
Lo! in the orient when the gracious ligh… Lifts up his burning head, each under ey… Doth homage to his new—appearing sight, Serving with looks his sacred majesty; And having climb’d the steep—up heavenly…
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sa… Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights… Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’s… Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine an… If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds…
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye, That thou consum’st thy self in single l… Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die, The world will wail thee like a makeless… The world will be thy widow and still we…
For shame, deny that thou bear’st love t… Who for thy self art so unprovident. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of… But that thou none lov’st is most eviden… For thou art so possessed with murd’rous…
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou… In one of thine, from that which thou de… And that fresh blood which youngly thou… Thou mayst call thine when thou from you… Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increas…
When I do count the clock that tells th… And see the brave day sunk in hideous ni… When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver’d o’er with w… When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
O, that you were your self! But, love,… No longer yours than you yourself here l… Against this coming end you should prepa… And your sweet semblance to some other g… So should that beauty which you hold in…
Not from the stars do I my judgement pl… And yet methinks I have astronomy— But not to tell of good or evil luck, Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ qual… Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell…
When I consider every thing that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment. That this huge stage presenteth nought b… Whereon the stars in secret influence co… When I perceive that men as plants incr…
But wherefore do not you a mightier way Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time, And fortify your self in your decay With means more blessèd than my barren r… Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
Who will believe my verse in time to com… If it were fill’d with your most high de… Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a… Which hides your life and shows not half… If I could write the beauty of your eye…
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of… And summer’s lease hath all too short a… Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shine…
Devouring Time blunt thou the lion’s pa… And make the earth devour her own sweet… Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tig… And burn the long-lived phoenix, in her… Make glad and sorry seasons as thou flee…
A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand p… Hast thou, the master-mistress of my pas… A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquaint… With shifting change, as is false women’… An eye more bright than theirs, less fal…
So is it not with me as with that muse, Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse… Who heaven it self for ornament doth use And every fair with his fair doth rehear… Making a couplement of proud compare
My glass shall not persuade me I am old So long as youth and thou are of one dat… But when in thee Time’s furrows I behol… Then look I death my days should expiat… For all that beauty that doth cover thee
As an unperfect actor on the stage Who with his fear is put besides his par… Or some fierce thing replete with too mu… Whose strength’s abundance weakens his o… So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
Mine eye hath played the painter and hat… Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart; My body is the frame wherein ’tis held, And perspective it is best painter’s art… For through the painter must you see his…
Let those who are in favour with their s… Of public honour and proud titles boast, Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph… Unlooked for joy in that I honour most. Great princes’ favourites their fair lea…
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit, To thee I send this written embassage, To witness duty, not to show my wit: Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel ti… But then begins a journey in my head, To work my mind, when body’s work’s expi… For then my thoughts, from far where I…
How can I then return in happy plight That am debarred the benefit of rest? When day’s oppression is not eased by ni… But day by night, and night by day oppre… And each, though enemies to either’s rei…
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s… I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless… And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope…
When to the sessions of sweet silent tho… I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sough… And with old woes new wail my dear time’… Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow…
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts, Which I by lacking have supposed dead; And there reigns Love, and all Love’s l… And all those friends which I thought b… How many a holy and obsequious tear
If thou survive my well-contented day When that churl Death my bones with dus… And shalt by fortune once more re-survey These poor rude lines of thy deceasèd lo… Compare them with the bett’ring of the t…
Full many a glorious morning have I see… Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign… Kissing with golden face the meadows gre… Gilding pale streams with heavenly alche… Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous… And make me travel forth without my cloa… To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way… Hiding thy brav’ry in their rotten smoke… ’Tis not enough that through the cloud t…
No more be grieved at that which thou ha… Roses have thorns, and silver fountains… Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and… And loathsome canker lives in sweetest b… All men make faults, and even I in this…
Let me confess that we two must be twain… Although our undivided loves are one; So shall those blots that do with me rem… Without thy help, by me be borne alone. In our two loves there is but one respec…
As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of yout… So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest sp… Take all my comfort of thy worth and tru… For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or…
How can my Muse want subject to invent While thou dost breathe, that pour’st in… Thine own sweet argument, too excellent For every vulgar paper to rehearse? O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in…
O, how thy worth with manners may I sin… When thou art all the better part of me? What can mine own praise to mine own sel… And what is’t but mine own when I prais… Even for this let us divided live,
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take th… What hast thou then more than thou hadst… No love, my love, that thou mayst true l… All mine was thine, before thou hadst th… Then if for my love, thou my love receiv…
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits When I am sometime absent from thy hear… Thy beauty and thy years full well befit… For still temptation follows where thou… Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won…
That thou hast her, it is not all my gri… And yet it may be said I loved her dear… That she hath thee is of my wailing chie… A loss in love that touches me more near… Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye…
When most I wink, then do mine eyes bes… For all the day they view things unrespe… But when I sleep, in dreams they look o… And darkly bright are bright in dark dir… Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth mak…
If the dull substance of my flesh were t… Injurious distance should not stop my wa… For then despite of space I would be br… From limits far remote, where thou dost… No matter then although my foot did stan…
The other two, slight air and purging fi… Are both with thee, wherever I abide; The first my thought, the other my desir… These present-absent with swift motion s… For when these quicker elements are gone
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war How to divide the conquest of thy sight; Mine eye my heart thy picture’s sight wo… My heart mine eye the freedom of that ri… My heart doth plead that thou in him dos…
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is t… And each doth good turns now unto the ot… When that mine eye is famished for a loo… Or heart in love with sighs himself doth… With my love’s picture then my eye doth…
How careful was I, when I took my way, Each trifle under truest bars to thrust, That to my use it might unusèd stay From hands of falsehood, in sure wards o… But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Against that time, if ever that time com… When I shall see thee frown on my defec… When as thy love hath cast his utmost su… Called to that audit by advised respects… Against that time when thou shalt strang…
How heavy do I journey on the way, When what I seek, my weary travel’s end… Doth teach that case and that repose to… “Thus far the miles are measured from th… The beast that bears me, tired with my w…
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence Of my dull bearer, when from thee I spe… From where thou art, why should I haste… Till I return, of posting is no need. O, what excuse will my poor beast then f…
So am I as the rich whose blessèd key Can bring him to his sweet up-lockèd tre… The which he will not every hour survey, For blunting the fine point of seldom pl… Therefore are feasts so solemn and so ra…
What is your substance, whereof are you… That millions of strange shadows on you… Since every one hath, every one, one sha… And you, but one, can every shadow lend. Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous s… By that sweet ornament which truth doth… The rose looks fair, but fairer we it de… For that sweet odour, which doth in it l… The canker blooms have full as deep a dy…
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful… But you shall shine more bright in these… Than unswept stone besmear’d with slutti… When wasteful war shall statues overturn…
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not s… Thy edge should blunter be than appetite… Which but to—day by feeding is allayed, To—morrow sharpened in his former might: So, love, be thou, although to—day thou…
Being your slave, what should I do but… Upon the hours and times of your desire? I have no precious time* at all to spend… Nor services to do, till you require. Nor dare I chide the world—without—end…
That god forbid, that made me first your… I should in thought control your times o… Or at your hand th’ account of hours to… Being your vassal bound to stay your lei… O, let me suffer, being at your beck,
If there be nothing new, but that which… Hath been before, how are our brains beg… Which, labouring for invention bear amis The second burthen of a former child! O, that record could with a backward loo…
Like as the waves make towards the pebbl… So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes… In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light,
