The Sonnets (Modern)
Not Peer Reviewed
270
19
¶Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
¶And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
¶Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
¶And burn the long-lived Phoenix in her blood;
275Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
¶And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
¶To the wide world and all her fading sweets:
¶But I forbid thee one most heinous crime,
¶Oh, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
280Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
¶Him in thy course untainted do allow
¶For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
¶_Yet do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
¶_My love shall in my verse ever live young.
285
20
¶A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
¶Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
¶A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
¶With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
290An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
¶Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
¶A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
¶Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth;
¶And for a woman wert thou first created,
295Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
¶And by addition me of thee defeated,
¶By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
¶_But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
¶_Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure.
300
21
¶So is it not with me as with that Muse,
¶Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse,
¶Who heaven itself for ornament doth use,
¶And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,
305Making a couplement of proud compare
¶With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems;
¶With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare
¶That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
¶Oh, let me true in love but truly write,
310And then believe me: my love is as fair
¶As any mother's child, though not so bright
¶As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air:
¶_Let them say more that like of hearsay well,
¶_I will not praise, that purpose not to sell.