The Sonnets (Modern)
Not Peer Reviewed
180
13
¶Oh that you were yourself! But, love, you are
¶No longer yours than you yourself here live.
¶Against this coming end you should prepare,
¶And your sweet semblance to some other give.
185So should that beauty which you hold in lease
¶Find no determination; then you were
¶Yourself again after yourself's decease,
¶When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
¶Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
190Which husbandry in honor might uphold
¶Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
¶And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
¶_Oh, none but unthrifts, dear my love you know:
¶_You had a father; let your son say so.
195
14
¶Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
¶And yet methinks I have astronomy;
¶But not to tell of good or evil luck,
¶Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
200Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
¶'Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
¶Or say with princes if it shall go well
¶By oft predict that I in heaven find.
¶But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
205And, constant stars, in them I read such art
¶As truth and beauty shall together thrive
¶If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert:
¶_Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
¶_Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.
210
15
¶When I consider everything that grows
¶Holds in perfection but a little moment;
¶That this huge stage presenteth naught but shows
¶Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
215When I perceive that men as plants increase,
¶Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
¶Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
¶And wear their brave state out of memory;
¶Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
220Sets you, most rich in youth, before my sight,
¶Where wasteful time debateth with decay
¶To change your day of youth to sullied night;
¶_And all in war with Time for love of you,
¶_As he takes from you, I engraft you new.