From fairest creatures we desire i… That thereby beauty’s rose might n… But as the riper should by time de… His tender heir might bear his mem… But thou, contracted to thine own…
When forty winters shall besiege t… And dig deep trenches in thy beaut… Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed… Will be a tatter’d weed, of small… Then being ask’d where all thy bea…
Look in thy glass, and tell the fa… Now is the time that face should f… Whose fresh repair if now thou not… Thou dost beguile the world, unble… For where is she so fair whose une…
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost tho… Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy? Nature’s bequest gives nothing but… And being frank she lends to those… Then, beauteous niggard, why dost…
Those hours, that with gentle work… The lovely gaze where every eye do… Will play the tyrants to the very… And that unfair which fairly doth… For never-resting time leads summe…
Then let not winter’s ragged hand… In thee thy summer, ere thou be di… Make sweet some vial; treasure tho… With beauty’s treasure ere it be s… That use is not forbidden usury,
Lo! in the orient when the graciou… Lifts up his burning head, each un… Doth homage to his new—appearing s… Serving with looks his sacred maje… And having climb’d the steep—up he…
Music to hear, why hear’st thou mu… Sweets with sweets war not, joy de… Why lov’st thou that which thou re… Or else receiv’st with pleasure th… If the true concord of well-tunèd…
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s ey… That thou consum’st thy self in si… Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to… The world will wail thee like a ma… The world will be thy widow and st…
For shame, deny that thou bear’st… Who for thy self art so unproviden… Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belo… But that thou none lov’st is most… For thou art so possessed with mur…
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fas… In one of thine, from that which t… And that fresh blood which youngly… Thou mayst call thine when thou fr… Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and i…
When I do count the clock that te… And see the brave day sunk in hide… When I behold the violet past pri… And sable curls all silver’d o’er… When lofty trees I see barren of…
O, that you were your self! But,… No longer yours than you yourself… Against this coming end you should… And your sweet semblance to some o… So should that beauty which you ho…
Not from the stars do I my judgem… And yet methinks I have astronomy… But not to tell of good or evil lu… Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons… Nor can I fortune to brief minute…
When I consider every thing that… Holds in perfection but a little m… That this huge stage presenteth no… Whereon the stars in secret influe… When I perceive that men as plant…
But wherefore do not you a mightie… Make war upon this bloody tyrant,… And fortify your self in your deca… With means more blessèd than my ba… Now stand you on the top of happy…
Who will believe my verse in time… If it were fill’d with your most h… Though yet, heaven knows, it is bu… Which hides your life and shows no… If I could write the beauty of yo…
Shall I compare thee to a summer’… Thou art more lovely and more temp… Rough winds do shake the darling b… And summer’s lease hath all too sh… Sometime too hot the eye of heaven…
Devouring Time blunt thou the lio… And make the earth devour her own… Pluck the keen teeth from the fier… And burn the long-lived phoenix, i… Make glad and sorry seasons as tho…
A woman’s face with Nature’s own… Hast thou, the master-mistress of… A woman’s gentle heart, but not ac… With shifting change, as is false… An eye more bright than theirs, le…
So is it not with me as with that… Stirred by a painted beauty to his… Who heaven it self for ornament do… And every fair with his fair doth… Making a couplement of proud compa…
My glass shall not persuade me I… So long as youth and thou are of o… But when in thee Time’s furrows I… Then look I death my days should… For all that beauty that doth cove…
As an unperfect actor on the stage Who with his fear is put besides h… Or some fierce thing replete with… Whose strength’s abundance weakens… So I, for fear of trust, forget t…
Mine eye hath played the painter a… Thy beauty’s form in table of my h… My body is the frame wherein ’tis… And perspective it is best painter… For through the painter must you s…
Let those who are in favour with t… Of public honour and proud titles… Whilst I, whom fortune of such tr… Unlooked for joy in that I honour… Great princes’ favourites their fa…
Lord of my love, to whom in vassal… Thy merit hath my duty strongly kn… To thee I send this written embas… To witness duty, not to show my wi… Duty so great, which wit so poor a…
Weary with toil, I haste me to my… The dear repose for limbs with tra… But then begins a journey in my he… To work my mind, when body’s work’… For then my thoughts, from far whe…
How can I then return in happy pl… That am debarred the benefit of re… When day’s oppression is not eased… But day by night, and night by day… And each, though enemies to either…
When, in disgrace with fortune and… I all alone beweep my outcast stat… And trouble deaf heaven with my bo… And look upon myself and curse my… Wishing me like to one more rich i…
When to the sessions of sweet sile… I summon up remembrance of things… I sigh the lack of many a thing I… And with old woes new wail my dear… Then can I drown an eye, unus’d t…
Thy bosom is endeared with all hea… Which I by lacking have supposed… And there reigns Love, and all Lo… And all those friends which I tho… How many a holy and obsequious tea…
If thou survive my well-contented… When that churl Death my bones wi… And shalt by fortune once more re-… These poor rude lines of thy decea… Compare them with the bett’ring of…
Full many a glorious morning have… Flatter the mountain-tops with sov… Kissing with golden face the meado… Gilding pale streams with heavenly… Anon permit the basest clouds to r…
Why didst thou promise such a beau… And make me travel forth without m… To let base clouds o’ertake me in… Hiding thy brav’ry in their rotten… ’Tis not enough that through the c…
No more be grieved at that which t… Roses have thorns, and silver foun… Clouds and eclipses stain both moo… And loathsome canker lives in swee… All men make faults, and even I i…
Let me confess that we two must be… Although our undivided loves are o… So shall those blots that do with… Without thy help, by me be borne a… In our two loves there is but one…
As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds o… So I, made lame by Fortune’s dear… Take all my comfort of thy worth a… For whether beauty, birth, or weal…
How can my Muse want subject to i… While thou dost breathe, that pour… Thine own sweet argument, too exce… For every vulgar paper to rehearse… O, give thyself the thanks, if aug…
O, how thy worth with manners may… When thou art all the better part… What can mine own praise to mine o… And what is’t but mine own when I… Even for this let us divided live,
Take all my loves, my love, yea, t… What hast thou then more than thou… No love, my love, that thou mayst… All mine was thine, before thou ha… Then if for my love, thou my love…
Those pretty wrongs that liberty c… When I am sometime absent from th… Thy beauty and thy years full well… For still temptation follows where… Gentle thou art, and therefore to…
That thou hast her, it is not all… And yet it may be said I loved he… That she hath thee is of my wailin… A loss in love that touches me mor… Loving offenders, thus I will exc…
When most I wink, then do mine ey… For all the day they view things u… But when I sleep, in dreams they… And darkly bright are bright in da… Then thou, whose shadow shadows do…
If the dull substance of my flesh… Injurious distance should not stop… For then despite of space I would… From limits far remote, where thou… No matter then although my foot di…
The other two, slight air and purg… Are both with thee, wherever I ab… The first my thought, the other my… These present-absent with swift mo… For when these quicker elements ar…
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal… How to divide the conquest of thy… Mine eye my heart thy picture’s si… My heart mine eye the freedom of t… My heart doth plead that thou in h…
Betwixt mine eye and heart a leagu… And each doth good turns now unto… When that mine eye is famished for… Or heart in love with sighs himsel… With my love’s picture then my eye…
How careful was I, when I took my… Each trifle under truest bars to t… That to my use it might unusèd sta… From hands of falsehood, in sure w… But thou, to whom my jewels trifle…
Against that time, if ever that ti… When I shall see thee frown on my… When as thy love hath cast his utm… Called to that audit by advised re… Against that time when thou shalt…
How heavy do I journey on the way… When what I seek, my weary travel… Doth teach that case and that repo… “Thus far the miles are measured f… The beast that bears me, tired wit…
Thus can my love excuse the slow o… Of my dull bearer, when from thee… From where thou art, why should I… Till I return, of posting is no n… O, what excuse will my poor beast…
So am I as the rich whose blessèd… Can bring him to his sweet up-lock… The which he will not every hour s… For blunting the fine point of sel… Therefore are feasts so solemn and…
What is your substance, whereof ar… That millions of strange shadows o… Since every one hath, every one, o… And you, but one, can every shadow… Describe Adonis, and the counterf…
O, how much more doth beauty beaut… By that sweet ornament which truth… The rose looks fair, but fairer we… For that sweet odour, which doth i… The canker blooms have full as dee…
Not marble, nor the gilded monumen… Of princes, shall outlive this pow… But you shall shine more bright in… Than unswept stone besmear’d with… When wasteful war shall statues ov…
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it… Thy edge should blunter be than ap… Which but to—day by feeding is all… To—morrow sharpened in his former… So, love, be thou, although to—day…
Being your slave, what should I d… Upon the hours and times of your d… I have no precious time* at all to… Nor services to do, till you requi… Nor dare I chide the world—withou…
That god forbid, that made me firs… I should in thought control your t… Or at your hand th’ account of hou… Being your vassal bound to stay yo… O, let me suffer, being at your be…
If there be nothing new, but that… Hath been before, how are our brai… Which, labouring for invention bea… The second burthen of a former chi… O, that record could with a backwa…
Like as the waves make towards the… So do our minutes hasten to their… Each changing place with that whic… In sequent toil all forwards do co… Nativity, once in the main of ligh…