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  • Title: The Sonnets (Modern)
  • Editor: Michael Best

    • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Michael Best
    Not Peer Reviewed

    The Sonnets (Modern)

    0.1TO.THE.ONLY.BEGETTER.OF.
    THESE ENSUING.SONNETS.
    Mr.W.H.
    ALL.HAPPINESS.
    0.5AND.THAT.ETERNITY.
    PROMISED.
    BY.
    OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET.
    WISHETH.
    0.10THE.WELL-WISHING.
    ADVENTURER.IN.
    SETTING.FORTH.
    1
    1From fairest creatures we desire increase,
    That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
    But as the riper should by time decease
    His tender heir might bear his memory:
    5But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
    Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
    Making a famine where abundance lies,
    Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
    Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
    10And only herald to the gaudy spring,
    Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
    And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding.
    Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
    To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
    152
    When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
    And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
    Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
    Will be a tattered weed of small worth held:
    20Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
    Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
    To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,
    Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
    How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use
    25If thou couldst answer, "This fair child of mine
    Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,"
    Proving his beauty by succession thine.
    This were to be new made when thou art old,
    And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
    303
    Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest,
    Now is the time that face should form another,
    Whose fresh repair, if now thou not renewest,
    Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
    35For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
    Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
    Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
    Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
    Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
    40Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
    So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
    Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
    But if thou live remembered not to be,
    Die single, and thine image dies with thee.
    454
    Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
    Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy?
    Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
    And, being frank, she lends to those are free.
    50Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
    The bounteous largesse given thee to give?
    Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
    So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
    For having traffic with thyself alone,
    55Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive;
    Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
    What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
    Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,
    Which used, lives th'executor to be.
    605
    Those hours that with gentle work did frame
    The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell
    Will play the tyrants to the very same,
    And that unfair which fairly doth excel.
    65For never-resting time leads summer on
    To hideous winter, and confounds him there,
    Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
    Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness everywhere;
    Then were not summer's distillation left
    70A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
    Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,
    Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was.
    But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet,
    Lose but their show; their substance still lives sweet.
    756
    Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
    In thee thy summer ere thou be distilled:
    Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
    With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
    80That use is not forbidden usury
    Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
    That's for thyself to breed another thee,
    Or ten times happier be it ten for one;
    Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,
    85If ten of thine ten times refigured thee;
    Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
    Leaving thee living in posterity?
    Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
    To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.
    907
    Lo, in the Orient when the gracious light
    Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
    Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,
    Serving with looks his sacred majesty;
    95And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,
    Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
    Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
    Attending on his golden pilgrimage:
    But when from highmost pitch with weary car,
    100Like feeble age he reeleth from the day,
    The eyes, fore-duteous, now converted are
    From his low tract, and look another way:
    So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon,
    Unlooked on diest, unless thou get a son.
    1058
    Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
    Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy;
    Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
    Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
    110If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds
    By unions married, do offend thine ear,
    They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
    In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear:
    Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
    115Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
    Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother,
    Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
    Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
    Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'
    1209
    Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
    That thou consum'st thyself in single life?
    Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
    The world will wail thee like a mateless wife;
    125The world will be thy widow, and still weep
    That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
    When every private widow well may keep,
    By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
    Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend,
    130Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
    But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
    And kept unused the user so destroys it:
    No love toward others in that bosom sits
    That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
    13510
    For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any,
    Who for thyself art so unprovident.
    Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
    But that thou none lov'st is most evident:
    140For thou art so possessed with murd'rous hate,
    That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire,
    Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
    Which to repair should be thy chief desire:
    Oh, change thy thought, that I may change my mind;
    145Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
    Be as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
    Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove;
    Make thee another self for love of me,
    That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
    15011
    As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
    In one of thine, from that which thou departest;
    And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st
    Thou mayst call thine, when thou from youth convertest.
    155Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase;
    Without this, folly, age, and cold decay.
    If all were minded so, the times should cease,
    And threescore year would make the world away:
    Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
    160Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish;
    Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more;
    Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
    She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby
    Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
    16512
    When I do count the clock that tells the time,
    And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
    When I behold the violet past prime,
    And sable curls all silvered o'er with white:
    170When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
    Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
    And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
    Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:
    Then of thy beauty do I question make,
    175That thou among the wastes of time must go,
    Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
    And die as fast as they see others grow,
    And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defense,
    Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
    18013
    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.
    19514
    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.
    21015
    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.
    22516
    But wherefore do not you a mightier way
    Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time,
    And fortify yourself in your decay
    With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
    230Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
    And many maiden gardens, yet unset,
    With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,
    Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
    So should the lines of life that life repair,
    235Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
    Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
    Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.
    To give away yourself, keeps yourself still,
    And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill.
    24017
    Who will believe my verse in time to come,
    If it were filled with your most high deserts?
    Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
    Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts:
    245If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
    And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
    The age to come would say, "This poet lies:
    Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces."
    So should my papers (yellowed with their age)
    250Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
    And your true rights be termed a poet's rage,
    And stretchèd meter of an antique song.
    But were some child of yours alive that time,
    You should live twice: in it, and in my rhyme.
    25518
    Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
    260Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
    And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
    And every fair from fair sometime declines,
    By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
    But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
    265Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
    Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
    When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
    So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
    27019
    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.
    28520
    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.
    30021
    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.
    31522
    My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
    So long as youth and thou are of one date;
    But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
    Then look I death my days should expiate.
    320For all that beauty that doth cover thee
    Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
    Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me;
    How can I then be elder than thou art?
    Oh, therefore love be of thyself so wary,
    325As I not for myself, but for thee will,
    Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
    As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
    Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
    Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.
    33023
    As an unperfect actor on the stage,
    Who with his fear is put besides his part;
    Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
    Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;
    335So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
    The perfect ceremony of love's right,
    And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
    O'ercharged with burden of mine own love's might:
    Oh, let my books be then the eloquence,
    340And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
    Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
    More than that tongue that more hath more expressed.
    Oh, learn to read what silent love hath writ!
    To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
    34524
    Mine eye hath played the painter, and hath steeled
    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;
    350For through the painter must you see his skill,
    To find where your true image pictured lies,
    Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still,
    That hath his windows glazèd with thine eyes:
    Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done:
    355Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me
    Are windows to my breast, wherethrough the sun
    Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee;
    Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art:
    They draw but what they see, know not the heart.
    36025
    Let those who are in favor with their stars
    Of public honor and proud titles boast,
    Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
    Unlooked for joy in that I honor most.
    365Great princes' favorites their fair leaves spread
    But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
    And in themselves their pride lies buried,
    For at a frown they in their glory die.
    The painful warrior famousèd for worth,
    370After a thousand victories once foiled,
    Is from the book of honor razèd quite,
    And all the rest forgot for which he toiled:
    Then happy I, that love and am beloved
    Where I may not remove, nor be removed.
    37526
    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;
    380Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
    May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it;
    But that I hope some good conceit of thine
    In thy soul's thought, all naked, will bestow it.
    Till whatsoever star that guides my moving
    385Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
    And puts apparel on my tattered loving,
    To show me worthy of thy sweet respect:
    Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee;
    Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.
    39027
    Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
    The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
    But then begins a journey in my head
    To work my mind, when body's work's expired;
    395For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
    Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
    And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
    Looking on darkness which the blind do see;
    Save that my soul's imaginary sight
    400Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
    Which like a jewel, hung in ghastly night,
    Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
    Lo, thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
    For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
    40528
    How can I then return in happy plight
    That am debarred the benefit of rest?
    When day's oppression is not eased by night,
    But day by night and night by day oppressed,
    410And each, though enemies to either's reign,
    Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
    The one by toil, the other to complain
    How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
    I tell the day, to please him, thou art bright,
    415And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven;
    So flatter I the swart-complexioned night,
    When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even;
    But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
    And night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger.
    42029
    When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes
    I all alone beweep my outcast state,
    And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
    And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
    425Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
    Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
    Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
    With what I most enjoy contented least;
    Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
    430Haply I think on thee, and then my state137--
    Like to the lark at break of day arising
    From sullen earth--sings hymns at heaven's gate;
    For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
    That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
    43530
    When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
    I summon up remembrance of things past,
    I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
    And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste;
    440Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
    For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
    And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
    And moan th'expense of many a vanished sight.
    Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
    445And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
    The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
    Which I new pay as if not paid before;
    But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
    All losses are restored, and sorrows end.
    45031
    Thy bosom is endearèd with all hearts
    Which I, by lacking, have supposèd dead;
    And there reigns love, and all love's loving parts,
    And all those friends which I thought burièd.
    455How many a holy and obsequious tear
    Hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye,
    As interest of the dead, which now appear
    But things removed that hidden in thee lie.
    Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
    460Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,
    Who all their parts of me to thee did give;
    That due of many, now is thine alone.
    Their images I loved, I view in thee,
    And thou, all they, hast all the all of me.
    46532
    If thou survive my well-contented day,
    When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover,
    And shalt by fortune once more re-survey
    These poor rude lines of thy deceasèd lover:
    470Compare them with the bett'ring of the time,
    And though they be outstripped by every pen,
    Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
    Exceeded by the height of happier men.
    Oh, then vouchsafe me but this loving thought:
    475"Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age,
    A dearer birth than this his love had brought,
    To march in ranks of better equipage;
    But since he died and poets better prove,
    Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love."
    48033
    Full many a glorious morning have I seen
    Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye--
    Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
    Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy--
    485Anon permit the basest clouds to ride,
    With ugly rack on his celestial face,
    And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
    Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
    Even so my sun one early morn did shine
    490With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
    But out alack, he was but one hour mine,
    The region cloud hath masked him from me now.
    Yet him for this, my love no whit disdaineth:
    Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun staineth.
    49534
    Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
    And make me travel forth without my cloak,
    To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way,
    Hiding thy brav'ry in their rotten smoke?
    500'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
    To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
    For no man well of such a salve can speak
    That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace;
    Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
    505Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss;
    Th'offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
    To him that bears the strong offence's cross.
    Ah, but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
    And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.
    51035
    No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
    Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
    Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
    And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
    515All men make faults, and even I in this,
    Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
    Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
    Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are:
    For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense;
    520Thy adverse party is thy advocate,
    And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
    Such civil war is in my love and hate
    That I an accessory needs must be
    To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
    52536
    Let me confess that we two must be twain,
    Although our undivided loves are one;
    So shall those blots that do with me remain,
    Without thy help, by me be borne alone.
    530In our two loves there is but one respect,
    Though in our lives a separable spite;
    Which, though it alter not love's sole effect,
    Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight.
    I may not evermore acknowledge thee,
    535Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
    Nor thou with public kindness honor me,
    Unless thou take that honor from thy name:
    But do not so; I love thee in such sort,
    As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
    54037
    As a decrepit father takes delight
    To see his active child do deeds of youth,
    So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite,
    Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
    545For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
    Or any of these all, or all, or more,
    Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit,
    I make my love engrafted to this store:
    So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
    550Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give
    That I in thy abundance am sufficed,
    And by a part of all thy glory live:
    Look what is best, that best I wish in thee;
    This wish I have, then ten times happy me.
    55538
    How can my Muse want subject to invent
    While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
    Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
    For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
    560Oh, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
    Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;
    For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
    When thou thyself dost give invention light?
    Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
    565Than those old nine which rhymers invocate;
    And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
    Eternal numbers to outlive long date.
    If my slight Muse do please these curious days,
    The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
    57039
    Oh, how thy worth with manners may I sing,
    When thou art all the better part of me?
    What can mine own praise to mine own self bring,
    And what is't but mine own, when I praise thee?
    575Even for this, let us divided live,
    And our dear love lose name of single one,
    That by this separation I may give
    That due to thee which thou deserv'st alone.
    O absence, what a torment wouldst thou prove,
    580Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave
    To entertain the time with thoughts of love,
    Which time and thoughts so sweetly dost deceive.
    And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
    By praising him here who doth hence remain.
    58540
    Take all my loves, my love; yea, take them all.
    What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
    No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
    All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more:
    590Then if for my love thou my love receivest,
    I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest;
    But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest
    By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
    I do forgive thy robb'ry, gentle thief,
    595Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
    And yet love knows it is a greater grief
    To bear love's wrong, than hate's known injury.
    Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
    Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.
    60041
    Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,
    When I am sometime absent from thy heart,
    Thy beauty and thy years full well befits;
    For still temptation follows where thou art.
    605Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won;
    Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed;
    And when a woman woos, what woman's son
    Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed?
    Ay me, but yet thou mightst my seat forbear,
    610And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth,
    Who lead thee in their riot even there
    Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth:
    Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
    Thine by thy beauty being false to me.
    61542
    That thou hast her it is not all my grief,
    And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;
    That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
    A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
    620Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:
    Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I love her,
    And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
    Suff'ring my friend for my sake to approve her.
    If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
    625And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;
    Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
    And both for my sake lay on me this cross.
    But here's the joy: my friend and I are one--
    Sweet flattery--then she loves but me alone.
    63043
    When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see;
    For all the day they view things unrespected,
    But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
    And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
    635Then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
    How would thy shadow's form, form happy show
    To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
    When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so?
    How would, I say, mine eyes be blessèd made
    640By looking on thee in the living day,
    When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
    Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay?
    All days are nights to see till I see thee,
    And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
    64544
    If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
    Injurious distance should not stop my way;
    For then, despite of space, I would be brought
    From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
    650No matter then although my foot did stand
    Upon the farthest earth removed from thee,
    For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
    As soon as think the place where he would be.
    But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought,
    655To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
    But that so much of earth and water wrought,
    I must attend time's leisure with my moan;
    Receiving nought by elements so slow
    But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.
    66045
    The other two, slight air, and purging fire,
    Are both with thee, wherever I abide:
    The first my thought, the other my desire,
    These, present-absent, with swift motion slide;
    665For when these quicker elements are gone
    In tender embassy of love to thee,
    My life being made of four, with two alone
    Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy,
    Until life's composition be recured
    670By those swift messengers returned from thee,
    Who even but now come back again assured
    Of thy fair health, recounting it to me.
    This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
    I send them back again and straight grow sad.
    67546
    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 would bar,
    My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right;
    680My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
    A closet never pierced with crystal eyes;
    But the defendant doth that plea deny,
    And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
    To 'cide this title is empanelled
    685A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
    And by their verdict is determined
    The clear eyes' moiety, and the dear heart's part.
    As thus, mine eyes' due is thy outward part,
    And my heart's right, thy inward love of heart.
    69047
    Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
    And each doth good turns now unto the other;
    When that mine eye is famished for a look,
    Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
    695With my love's picture then my eye doth feast,
    And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
    Another time mine eye is my heart's guest,
    And in his thoughts of love doth share a part.
    So either by thy picture or my love,
    700Thyself away, art present still with me;
    For thou no further than my thoughts canst move,
    And I am still with them, and they with thee;
    Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
    Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.
    70548
    How careful was I, when I took my way,
    Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
    That to my use it might unused stay
    From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust;
    710But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
    Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
    Thou best of dearest, and mine only care,
    Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
    Thee have I not locked up in any chest,
    715Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
    Within the gentle closure of my breast,
    From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
    And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,
    For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
    72049
    Against that time, if ever that time come,
    When I shall see thee frown on my defects;
    Whenas thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
    Called to that audit by advised respects;
    725Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
    And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
    When love, converted from the thing it was,
    Shall reasons find of settled gravity;
    Against that time do I ensconce me here,
    730Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
    And this my hand against myself uprear,
    To guard the lawful reasons on thy part.
    To leave poor me, thou hast the strength of laws,
    Since why to love, I can allege no cause.
    73550
    How heavy do I journey on the way
    When what I seek, my weary travel's end,
    Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,
    "Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend."
    740The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
    Plods dully on to bear that weight in me,
    As if by some instinct the wretch did know
    His rider loved not speed being made from thee.
    The bloody spur cannot provoke him on
    745That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,
    Which heavily he answers with a groan,
    More sharp to me than spurring to his side,
    For that same groan doth put this in my mind:
    My grief lies onward and my joy behind.
    75051
    Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
    Of my dull bearer, when from thee I speed:
    From where thou art, why should I haste me thence?
    Till I return, of posting is no need.
    755Oh, what excuse will my poor beast then find,
    When swift extremity can seem but slow?
    Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind;
    In winged speed no motion shall I know;
    Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;
    760Therefore desire, of perfect'st love being made,
    Shall weigh no dull flesh in his fiery race,
    But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade:
    Since from thee going he went wilful-slow,
    Towards thee I'll run, and give him leave to go.
    76552
    So am I as the rich, whose blessèd key
    Can bring him to his sweet up-lockèd treasure,
    The which he will not every hour survey,
    For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure;
    770Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
    Since, seldom coming, in the long year set,
    Like stones of worth they thinly placèd are,
    Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
    So is the time that keeps you as my chest,
    775Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,
    To make some special instant special blessed
    By new unfolding his imprisoned pride.
    Blessed are you, whose worthiness gives scope,
    Being had, to triumph; being lacked, to hope.
    78053
    What is your substance, whereof are you made,
    That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
    Since every one hath every one one shade,
    And you, but one, can every shadow lend;
    785Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
    Is poorly imitated after you;
    On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set
    And you in Grecian tires are painted new;
    Speak of the spring, and foison of the year:
    790The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
    The other as your bounty doth appear,
    And you in every blessed shape we know.
    In all external grace you have some part,
    But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
    79554
    Oh, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
    By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
    The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
    For that sweet odor which doth in it live;
    800The canker blooms have full as deep a dye
    As the perfumèd tincture of the roses,
    Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly,
    When summer's breath their maskèd buds discloses;
    But, for their virtue only is their show,
    805They live unwooed, and unrespected fade,
    Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
    Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odors made:
    And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
    When that shall vade, my verse distils your truth.
    81055
    Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
    Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
    But you shall shine more bright in these contents
    Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
    815When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
    And broils root out the work of masonry,
    Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire, shall burn
    The living record of your memory.
    'Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity
    820Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
    Even in the eyes of all posterity
    That wear this world out to the ending doom.
    So till the judgment that yourself arise,
    You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
    82556
    Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
    Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,
    Which but today by feeding is allayed,
    Tomorrow sharpened in his former might.
    830So, love, be thou; although today thou fill
    Thy hungry eyes, even till they wink with fullness,
    Tomorrow see again, and do not kill
    The spirit of love with a perpetual dullness;
    Let this sad interim like the ocean be
    835Which parts the shore, where two contracted new
    Come daily to the banks, that when they see
    Return of love, more blessed may be the view;
    Or call it winter, which being full of care
    Makes summer's welcome thrice more wished, more rare.
    84057
    Being your slave, what should I do but tend
    Upon the hours and times of your desire?
    I have no precious time at all to spend,
    Nor services to do, till you require;
    845Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
    Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
    Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
    When you have bid your servant once adieu;
    Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
    850Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
    But like a sad slave stay and think of naught,
    Save, where you are, how happy you make those.
    So true a fool is love, that in your will,
    Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
    85558
    That god forbid, that made me first your slave,
    I should in thought control your times of pleasure,
    Or at your hand th'account of hours to crave,
    Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure.
    860Oh, let me suffer, being at your beck,
    Th'imprisoned absence of your liberty,
    And patience-tame to sufferance bide each check,
    Without accusing you of injury.
    Be where you list, your charter is so strong
    865That you yourself may privilege your time
    To what you will; to you it doth belong
    Yourself to pardon of self-doing crime.
    I am to wait, though waiting so be hell,
    Not blame your pleasure be it ill or well.
    87059
    If there be nothing new, but that which is
    Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
    Which, laboring for invention, bear amiss
    The second burden of a former child?
    875Oh, that record could with a backward look,
    Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
    Show me your image in some antique book,
    Since mind at first in character was done,
    That I might see what the old world could say
    880To this composèd wonder of your frame;
    Whether we are mended, or whe'er better they,
    Or whether revolution be the same.
    Oh, sure I am, the wits of former days
    To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
    88560
    Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
    So do our minutes hasten to their end,
    Each changing place with that which goes before,
    In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
    890Nativity, once in the main of light,
    Crawls to maturity; wherewith, being crowned,
    Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
    And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.
    Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
    895And delves the parallels in beauty's brow;
    Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
    And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.
    And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
    Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
    90061
    Is it thy will thy image should keep open
    My heavy eyelids to the weary night?
    Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
    While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
    905Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
    So far from home into my deeds to pry,
    To find out shames and idle hours in me,
    The scope and tenor of thy jealousy?
    Oh, no, thy love, though much, is not so great;
    910It is my love that keeps mine eye awake,
    Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
    To play the watchman ever for thy sake.
    For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
    From me far off, with others all too near.
    91562
    Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye,
    And all my soul, and all my every part;
    And for this sin there is no remedy,
    It is so grounded inward in my heart.
    920Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
    No shape so true, no truth of such account,
    And for myself mine own worth do define,
    As I all other in all worths surmount.
    But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
    925Beated and chapped with tanned antiquity,
    Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
    Self, so self-loving, were iniquity.
    'Tis thee--my self--that for myself I praise,
    Painting my age with beauty of thy days.
    93063
    Against my love shall be as I am now,
    With Time's injurious hand crushed and o'erworn;
    When hours have drained his blood, and filled his brow
    With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn
    935Hath travelled on to age's steepy night,
    And all those beauties whereof now he's king
    Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight,
    Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
    For such a time do I now fortify
    940Against confounding age's cruel knife,
    That he shall never cut from memory
    My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life.
    His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
    And they shall live, and he in them still green.
    94564
    When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
    The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
    When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
    And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
    950When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
    Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
    And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main,
    Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
    When I have seen such interchange of state,
    955Or state itself confounded to decay,
    Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate
    That Time will come and take my love away.
    This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
    But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
    96065
    Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
    But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
    How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
    Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
    965Oh, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
    Against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days
    When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
    Nor gates of steel so strong, but time decays?
    Oh, fearful meditation! Where, alack,
    970Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
    Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,
    Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
    O, none, unless this miracle have might,
    That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
    97566
    Tired with all these for restful death I cry:
    As to behold desert a beggar born,
    And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
    And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
    980And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
    And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
    And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
    And strength by limping sway disabled,
    And art made tongue-tied by authority,
    985And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
    And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
    And captive good attending captain ill:
    Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
    Save that to die I leave my love alone.
    99067
    Ah, wherefore with infection should he live,
    And with his presence grace impiety,
    That sin by him advantage should achieve,
    And lace itself with his society?
    995Why should false painting imitate his cheek,
    And steal dead seeming of his living hue?
    Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
    Roses of shadow, since his rose is true?
    Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is,
    1000Beggared of blood to blush through lively veins?
    For she hath no exchequer now but his,
    And proud of many, lives upon his gains.
    O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had
    In days long since, before these last so bad.
    100568
    Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,
    When beauty lived and died as flowers do now,
    Before these bastard signs of fair were born,
    Or durst inhabit on a living brow;
    1010Before the golden tresses of the dead,
    The right of sepulchres, were shorn away,
    To live a second life on second head;
    Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay.
    In him those holy antique hours are seen,
    1015Without all ornament, itself and true,
    Making no summer of another's green,
    Robbing no old to dress his beauty new;
    And him as for a map doth Nature store,
    To show false Art what beauty was of yore.
    102069
    Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
    Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;
    All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,
    Utt'ring bare truth, even so as foes commend;
    1025Thy outward thus with outward praise is crowned.
    But those same tongues that give thee so thine own
    In other accents do this praise confound,
    By seeing farther than the eye hath shown;
    They look into the beauty of thy mind,
    1030And that in guess they measure by thy deeds;
    Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,
    To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds.
    But why thy odor matcheth not thy show,
    The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
    103570
    That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
    For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
    The ornament of beauty is suspect,
    A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
    1040So thou be good, slander doth but approve
    Thy worth the greater, being wooed of time;
    For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
    And thou present'st a pure unstainèd prime.
    Thou hast passed by the ambush of young days,
    1045Either not assailed, or victor, being charged;
    Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
    To tie up envy, evermore enlarged.
    If some suspect of ill masked not thy show,
    Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.
    105071
    No longer mourn for me when I am dead
    Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
    Give warning to the world that I am fled
    From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell.
    1055Nay, if you read this line, remember not
    The hand that writ it, for I love you so
    That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
    If thinking on me then should make you woe.
    Oh, if, I say, you look upon this verse,
    1060When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
    Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
    But let your love even with my life decay,
    Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
    And mock you with me after I am gone.
    106572
    O, lest the world should task you to recite
    What merit lived in me that you should love,
    After my death, dear love, forget me quite,
    For you in me can nothing worthy prove--
    1070Unless you would devise some virtuous lie
    To do more for me than mine own desert,
    And hang more praise upon deceasèd I
    Than niggard truth would willingly impart.
    O, lest your true love may seem false in this,
    1075That you for love speak well of me untrue,
    My name be buried where my body is,
    And live no more to shame nor me, nor you.
    For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,
    And so should you, to love things nothing worth.
    108073
    That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
    When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
    Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
    Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
    1085In me thou seest the twilight of such day
    As after sunset fadeth in the west,
    Which by and by black night doth take away,
    Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
    In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
    1090That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
    As the deathbed, whereon it must expire,
    Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
    This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
    To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
    109574
    But be contented when that fell arrest
    Without all bail shall carry me away;
    My life hath in this line some interest,
    Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.
    1100When thou reviewest this, thou dost review
    The very part was consecrate to thee;
    The earth can have but earth, which is his due,
    My spirit is thine, the better part of me;
    So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,
    1105The prey of worms, my body being dead,
    The coward conquest of a wretch's knife,
    Too base of thee to be remembered.
    The worth of that, is that which it contains,
    And that is this, and this with thee remains.
    111075
    So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
    Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
    And for the peace of you I hold such strife
    As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
    1115Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
    Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
    Now counting best to be with you alone,
    Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure;
    Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
    1120And by and by clean starvèd for a look,
    Possessing or pursuing no delight
    Save what is had, or must from you be took.
    Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
    Or gluttoning on all, or all away.
    112576
    Why is my verse so barren of new pride?
    So far from variation or quick change?
    Why with the time do I not glance aside
    To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
    1130Why write I still all one, ever the same,
    And keep invention in a noted weed,
    That every word doth almost tell my name,
    Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
    Oh, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
    1135And you and love are still my argument:
    So all my best is dressing old words new,
    Spending again what is already spent:
    For as the sun is daily new and old,
    So is my love still telling what is told.
    114077
    Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
    Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste,
    The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
    And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.
    1145The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
    Of mouthèd graves will give thee memory;
    Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know
    Time's thievish progress to eternity.
    Look what thy memory cannot contain,
    1150Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
    Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain,
    To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
    These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
    Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book.
    115578
    So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse,
    And found such fair assistance in my verse,
    As every alien pen hath got my use,
    And under thee their poesy disperse.
    1160Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing,
    And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
    Have added feathers to the learnèd's wing,
    And given grace a double majesty.
    Yet be most proud of that which I compile,
    1165Whose influence is thine, and born of thee;
    In others' works thou dost but mend the style,
    And arts with thy sweet graces gracèd be.
    But thou art all my art, and dost advance,
    As high as learning, my rude ignorance.
    117079
    Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
    My verse alone had all thy gentle grace;
    But now my gracious numbers are decayed,
    And my sick Muse doth give another place.
    1175I grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument
    Deserves the travail of a worthier pen;
    Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent
    He robs thee of, and pays it thee again;
    He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word
    1180From thy behavior; beauty doth he give,
    And found it in thy cheek; he can afford
    No praise to thee, but what in thee doth live.
    Then thank him not for that which he doth say,
    Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay.
    118580
    Oh, how I faint when I of you do write,
    Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
    And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
    To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame.
    1190But since your worth, wide as the ocean is,
    The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
    My saucy bark, inferior far to his,
    On your broad main doth wilfully appear.
    Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
    1195Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;
    Or, being wrecked, I am a worthless boat,
    He of tall building, and of goodly pride.
    Then if he thrive, and I be cast away,
    The worst was this: my love was my decay.
    120081
    Or I shall live, your epitaph to make,
    Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;
    From hence your memory death cannot take,
    Although in me each part will be forgotten.
    1205Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
    Though I, once gone, to all the world must die;
    The earth can yield me but a common grave,
    When you entombèd in men's eyes shall lie.
    Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
    1210Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read,
    And tongues-to-be your being shall rehearse,
    When all the breathers of this world are dead.
    You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen,
    Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.
    121582
    I grant thou wert not married to my Muse,
    And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook
    The dedicated words which writers use
    Of their fair subject, blessing every book.
    1220Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
    Finding thy worth a limit past my praise,
    And therefore art enforced to seek anew
    Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.
    And do so, love; yet when they have devised
    1225What strainèd touches rhetoric can lend,
    Thou, truly fair, wert truly sympathized
    In true plain words, by thy true-telling friend;
    And their gross painting might be better used
    Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abused.
    123083
    I never saw that you did painting need,
    And therefore to your fair no painting set;
    I found (or thought I found) you did exceed
    The barren tender of a poet's debt;
    1235And therefore have I slept in your report,
    That you yourself, being extant, well might show
    How far a modern quill doth come too short,
    Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
    This silence for my sin you did impute,
    1240Which shall be most my glory, being dumb;
    For I impair not beauty, being mute,
    When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
    There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
    Than both your poets can in praise devise.
    124584
    Who is it that says most which can say more
    Than this rich praise: that you alone are you?
    In whose confine immured is the store
    Which should example where your equal grew?
    1250Lean penury within that pen doth dwell
    That to his subject lends not some small glory;
    But he that writes of you, if he can tell
    That you are you, so dignifies his story.
    Let him but copy what in you is writ,
    1255Not making worse what nature made so clear,
    And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,
    Making his style admired everywhere.
    You to your beauteous blessings add a curse,
    Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse.
    126085
    My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still,
    While comments of your praise richly compiled
    Reserve thy character with golden quill,
    And precious phrase by all the Muses filed.
    1265I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words,
    And like unlettered clerk still cry "Amen"
    To every hymn that able spirit affords
    In polished form of well refinèd pen.
    Hearing you praised, I say "'Tis so, 'tis true,"
    1270And to the most of praise add something more;
    But that is in my thought, whose love to you,
    Though words come hindmost, holds his rank before;
    Then others for the breath of words respect,
    Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect.
    127586
    Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
    Bound for the prize of all-too-precious you,
    That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
    Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
    1280Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
    Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
    No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
    Giving him aid, my verse astonishèd.
    He, nor that affable familiar ghost
    1285Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
    As victors of my silence cannot boast;
    I was not sick of any fear from thence.
    But when your countenance filled up his line,
    Then lacked I matter, that enfeebled mine.
    129087
    Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
    And like enough thou know'st thy estimate;
    The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
    My bonds in thee are all determinate.
    1295For how do I hold thee but by thy granting,
    And for that riches where is my deserving?
    The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
    And so my patent back again is swerving.
    Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing,
    1300Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking;
    So thy great gift upon misprision growing
    Comes home again, on better judgment making.
    Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter,
    In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.
    130588
    When thou shalt be disposed to set me light
    And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
    Upon thy side against myself I'll fight,
    And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
    1310With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
    Upon thy part I can set down a story
    Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted,
    That thou, in losing me, shall win much glory;
    And I by this will be a gainer too,
    1315For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
    The injuries that to myself I do,
    Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.
    Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
    That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.
    132089
    Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,
    And I will comment upon that offence;
    Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt,
    Against thy reasons making no defense.
    1325Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill,
    To set a form upon desired change,
    As I'll myself disgrace, knowing thy will;
    I will acquaintance strangle and look strange,
    Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue
    1330Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell,
    Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong,
    And haply of our old acquaintance tell.
    For thee, against myself I'll vow debate,
    For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate.
    133590
    Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,
    Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
    Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
    And do not drop in for an after-loss.
    1340Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scaped this sorrow,
    Come in the rearward of a conquered woe;
    Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
    To linger out a purposed overthrow.
    If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
    1345When other petty griefs have done their spite;
    But in the onset come, so shall I taste
    At first the very worst of fortune's might;
    And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
    Compared with loss of thee, will not seem so.
    135091
    Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
    Some in their wealth, some in their body's force,
    Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill,
    Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
    1355And every humor hath his adjunct pleasure,
    Wherein it finds a joy above the rest.
    But these particulars are not my measure;
    All these I better in one general best.
    Thy love is better than high birth to me,
    1360Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost,
    Of more delight than hawks or horses be;
    And having thee, of all men's pride I boast--
    Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
    All this away, and me most wretched make.
    136592
    But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
    For term of life thou art assurèd mine,
    And life no longer than thy love will stay,
    For it depends upon that love of thine.
    1370Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,
    When in the least of them my life hath end;
    I see a better state to me belongs
    Than that which on thy humor doth depend.
    Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,
    1375Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.
    Oh, what a happy title do I find,
    Happy to have thy love, happy to die!
    But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot?
    Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not.
    138093
    So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
    Like a deceived husband; so love's face
    May still seem love to me, though altered new,
    Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place.
    1385For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
    Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
    In many's looks, the false heart's history
    Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange.
    But heaven in thy creation did decree
    1390That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell;
    Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be,
    Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
    How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,
    If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show.
    139594
    They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
    That do not do the thing they most do show,
    Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
    Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow:
    1400They rightly do inherit heaven's graces,
    And husband nature's riches from expense;
    They are the lords and owners of their faces,
    Others, but stewards of their excellence.
    The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
    1405Though to itself it only live and die,
    But if that flower with base infection meet,
    The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
    For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
    Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
    141095
    How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
    Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
    Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!
    Oh, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose!
    1415That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
    Making lascivious comments on thy sport,
    Cannot dispraise; but in a kind of praise,
    Naming thy name, blesses an ill report.
    Oh, what a mansion have those vices got,
    1420Which for their habitation chose out thee,
    Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot,
    And all things turns to fair that eyes can see!
    Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege;
    The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.
    142596
    Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
    Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;
    Both grace and faults are loved of more and less;
    Thou mak'st faults graces, that to thee resort:
    1430As on the finger of a thronèd queen
    The basest jewel will be well esteemed,
    So are those errors that in thee are seen
    To truths translated, and for true things deemed.
    How many lambs might the stern wolf betray
    1435If like a lamb he could his looks translate!
    How many gazers mightst thou lead away
    If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state!
    But do not so; I love thee in such sort,
    As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
    144097
    How like a winter hath my absence been
    From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
    What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,
    What old December's bareness everywhere!
    1445And yet this time removed was summer's time,
    The teeming autumn big with rich increase
    Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
    Like widowed wombs after their lords' decease:
    Yet this abundant issue seemed to me
    1450But hope of orphans, and unfathered fruit;
    For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
    And thou away, the very birds are mute;
    Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
    That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
    145598
    From you have I been absent in the spring,
    When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
    Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
    That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
    1460Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
    Of different flowers in odor and in hue,
    Could make me any summer's story tell,
    Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
    Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
    1465Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
    They were but sweet, but figures of delight
    Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
    Yet seemed it winter still, and, you away,
    As with your shadow I with these did play.
    147099
    The forward violet thus did I chide:
    "Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
    If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
    Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
    1475In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed."
    The lily I condemnèd for thy hand,
    And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;
    The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
    One blushing shame, another white despair;
    1480A third, nor red, nor white, had stol'n of both,
    And to his robbery had annexed thy breath;
    But for his theft, in pride of all his growth
    A vengeful canker ate him up to death.
    More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
    1485 But sweet, or color, it had stol'n from thee.
    100
    Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
    To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
    Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,
    1490Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?
    Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem,
    In gentle numbers, time so idly spent;
    Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem,
    And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
    1495Rise, resty Muse; my love's sweet face survey,
    If time have any wrinkle graven there;
    If any, be a satire to decay,
    And make time's spoils despised everywhere.
    Give my love fame faster than time wastes life,
    1500 So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife.
    101
    O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
    For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
    Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
    1505So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
    Make answer, Muse, wilt thou not haply say,
    "Truth needs no color with his color fixed,
    Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay,
    But best is best if never intermixed"?
    1510Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
    Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee
    To make him much outlive a gilded tomb,
    And to be praised of ages yet to be.
    Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how
    1515 To make him seem long hence, as he shows now.
    102
    My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming;
    I love not less, though less the show appear.
    That love is merchandised, whose rich esteeming4
    1520The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere.
    Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
    When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
    As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,
    And stops her pipe in growth of riper days.
    1525Not that the summer is less pleasant now
    Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night;
    But that wild music burdens every bough,
    And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
    Therefore, like her, I sometime hold my tongue,
    1530 Because I would not dull you with my song.
    103
    Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
    That, having such a scope to show her pride,
    The argument all bare is of more worth
    1535Than when it hath my added praise beside.
    O blame me not if I no more can write!
    Look in your glass, and there appears a face
    That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
    Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
    1540Were it not sinful, then, striving to mend,
    To mar the subject that before was well?
    For to no other pass my verses tend
    Than of your graces and your gifts to tell.
    And more, much more, than in my verse can sit
    1545 Your own glass shows you, when you look in it.
    104
    To me, fair friend, you never can be old;
    For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
    Such seems your beauty still: three winters cold
    1550Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;
    Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
    In process of the seasons have I seen;
    Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
    Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
    1555Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
    Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
    So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
    Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived;
    For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,
    1560 Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
    105
    Let not my love be called idolatry,
    Nor my beloved as an idol show,
    Since all alike my songs and praises be
    1565To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
    Kind is my love today, tomorrow kind,
    Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
    Therefore my verse, to constancy confined,
    One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
    1570Fair, kind, and true is all my argument;
    Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words,
    And in this change is my invention spent,
    Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.
    Fair, kind, and true have often lived alone,
    1575 Which three, till now, never kept seat in one.
    106
    When in the chronicle of wasted time
    I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
    And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
    1580In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights;
    Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,
    Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
    I see their antique pen would have expressed
    Even such a beauty as you master now.
    1585So all their praises are but prophecies
    Of this our time, all you prefiguring;
    And for they looked but with divining eyes
    They had not skill enough your worth to sing.
    For we which now behold these present days
    1590 Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
    107
    Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
    Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come,
    Can yet the lease of my true love control,
    1595Supposed as forfeit to a confinèd doom.
    The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
    And the sad augurs mock their own presage;
    Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
    And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
    1600Now with the drops of this most balmy time
    My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes,
    Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme,
    While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes;
    And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
    1605 When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent.
    108
    What's in the brain that ink may character
    Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit?
    What's new to speak, what now to register,
    1610That may express my love, or thy dear merit?
    Nothing, sweet boy; but yet, like prayers divine,
    I must each day say o'er the very same,
    Counting no old thing old; thou mine, I thine,
    Even as when first I hallowed thy fair name.
    1615So that eternal love, in love's fresh case,
    Weighs not the dust and injury of age,
    Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place
    But makes antiquity for aye his page,
    Finding the first conceit of love there bred,
    1620 Where time and outward form would show it dead.
    109
    O never say that I was false of heart,
    Though absence seemed my flame to qualify;
    As easy might I from myself depart
    1625As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie:
    That is my home of love; if I have ranged,
    Like him that travels I return again,
    Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
    So that myself bring water for my stain;
    1630Never believe, though in my nature reigned
    All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
    That it could so preposterously be stained,
    To leave for nothing all thy sum of good:
    For nothing this wide universe I call,
    1635 Save thou, my rose; in it thou art my all.
    110
    Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there,
    And made myself a motley to the view,
    Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,
    1640Made old offences of affections new.
    Most true it is that I have looked on truth
    Askance and strangely; but by all above,
    These blenches gave my heart another youth,
    And worse essays proved thee my best of love.
    1645Now all is done, save what shall have no end;
    Mine appetite I never more will grind
    On newer proof, to try an older friend,
    A god in love, to whom I am confined.
    Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,
    1650 Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.
    111
    Oh, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
    The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
    That did not better for my life provide
    1655Than public means, which public manners breeds.
    Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
    And almost thence my nature is subdued
    To what it works in, like the dyer's hand;
    Pity me then, and wish I were renewed,
    1660Whilst like a willing patient I will drink
    Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection;
    No bitterness that I will bitter think,
    Nor double penance to correct correction.
    Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye,
    1665 Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
    112
    Your love and pity doth th'impression fill
    Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow;
    For what care I who calls me well or ill
    1670So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow?
    You are my all-the-world, and I must strive
    To know my shames and praises from your tongue;
    None else to me, nor I to none alive,
    That my steeled sense o'er-changes right or wrong.
    1675In so profound abysm I throw all care
    Of others' voices, that my adder's sense
    To critic and to flatterer stoppèd are.
    Mark how with my neglect I do dispense:
    You are so strongly in my purpose bred
    1680 That all the world besides, methinks, are dead.
    113
    Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind,
    And that which governs me to go about
    Doth part his function, and is partly blind;
    1685Seems seeing, but effectually is out;
    For it no form delivers to the heart
    Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch;
    Of his quick objects hath the mind no part,
    Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch:
    1690For if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight,
    The most sweet-favored or deformed'st creature,
    The mountain, or the sea, the day, or night,
    The crow, or dove, it shapes them to your feature.
    Incapable of more, replete with you,
    1695 My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue.
    114
    Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you,
    Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?
    Or whether shall I say mine eye saith true,
    1700And that your love taught it this alchemy,
    To make of monsters, and things indigest
    Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble,
    Creating every bad a perfect best
    As fast as objects to his beams assemble?
    1705Oh, 'tis the first, 'tis flatt'ry in my seeing,
    And my great mind most kingly drinks it up.
    Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing,
    And to his palate doth prepare the cup.
    If it be poisoned, 'tis the lesser sin,
    1710 That mine eye loves it and doth first begin.
    115
    Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
    Even those that said I could not love you dearer;
    Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
    1715My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
    But reckoning time, whose millioned accidents
    Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
    Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
    Divert strong minds to th'course of alt'ring things;
    1720Alas, why, fearing of time's tyranny,
    Might I not then say, "Now I love you best,"
    When I was certain o'er incertainty,
    Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
    Love is a babe; then might I not say so,
    1725 To give full growth to that which still doth grow?
    116
    Let me not to the marriage of true minds
    Admit impediments; love is not love
    Which alters when it alteration finds,
    1730Or bends with the remover to remove.
    Oh no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
    That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
    It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
    Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
    1735Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
    Within his bending sickle's compass come;
    Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
    But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
    If this be error and upon me proved,
    1740 I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
    117
    Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
    Wherein I should your great deserts repay,
    Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
    1745Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day;
    That I have frequent been with unknown minds,
    And given to time your own dear-purchased right;
    That I have hoisted sail to all the winds
    Which should transport me farthest from your sight.
    1750Book both my wilfulness and errors down,
    And on just proof surmise accumulate;
    Bring me within the level of your frown,
    But shoot not at me in your wakened hate:
    Since my appeal says I did strive to prove
    1755 The constancy and virtue of your love.
    118
    Like as to make our appetite more keen
    With eager compounds we our palate urge;
    As, to prevent our maladies unseen,
    1760We sicken to shun sickness when we purge;
    Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,
    To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding,
    And sick of welfare found a kind of meetness
    To be diseased ere that there was true needing.
    1765Thus policy in love, t'anticipate
    The ills that were not, grew to faults assured,
    And brought to medicine a healthful state
    Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured.
    But thence I learn, and find the lesson true,
    1770 Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.
    119
    What potions have I drunk of siren tears
    Distilled from limbecks foul as hell within,
    Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,
    1775Still losing when I saw myself to win!
    What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
    Whilst it hath thought itself so blessèd never!
    How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted
    In the distraction of this madding fever!
    1780O benefit of ill: now I find true
    That better is by evil still made better,
    And ruined love when it is built anew
    Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
    So I return rebuked to my content,
    1785 And gain by ills thrice more than I have spent.
    120
    That you were once unkind befriends me now,
    And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,
    Needs must I under my transgression bow,
    1790Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel.
    For if you were by my unkindness shaken,
    As I by yours, you've passed a hell of time,
    And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken
    To weigh how once I suffered in your crime.
    1795O that our night of woe might have remembered
    My deepest sense how hard true sorrow hits,
    And soon to you, as you to me then, tendered
    The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits!
    But that your trespass now becomes a fee;
    1800 Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.
    121
    'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed,
    When not to be, receives reproach of being,
    And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
    1805Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.
    For why should others' false adulterate eyes
    Give salutation to my sportive blood?
    Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
    Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
    1810No, I am that I am, and they that level
    At my abuses, reckon up their own;
    I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel.
    By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown,
    Unless this general evil they maintain:
    1815 All men are bad, and in their badness reign.
    122
    Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
    Full charactered with lasting memory,
    Which shall above that idle rank remain
    1820Beyond all date, even to eternity--
    Or at the least, so long as brain and heart
    Have faculty by nature to subsist;
    Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
    Of thee, thy record never can be missed.
    1825That poor retention could not so much hold,
    Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;
    Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
    To trust those tables that receive thee more.
    To keep an adjunct to remember thee
    1830 Were to import forgetfulness in me.
    123
    No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change.
    Thy pyramids, built up with newer might,
    To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
    1835They are but dressings of a former sight.
    Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
    What thou dost foist upon us that is old,
    And rather make them born to our desire
    Than think that we before have heard them told.
    1840Thy registers and thee I both defy,
    Not wond'ring at the present, nor the past,
    For thy records, and what we see doth lie,
    Made more or less by thy continual haste:
    This I do vow, and this shall ever be,
    1845 I will be true despite thy scythe and thee.
    124
    If my dear love were but the child of state
    It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered,
    As subject to time's love or to time's hate,
    1850Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered.
    No, it was builded far from accident;
    It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
    Under the blow of thrallèd discontent,
    Whereto th'inviting time our fashion calls:
    1855It fears not policy, that heretic,
    Which works on leases of short-numbered hours,
    But all alone stands hugely politic,
    That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.
    To this I witness call the fools of time,
    1860 Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.
    125
    Were't aught to me I bore the canopy,
    With my extern the outward honoring,
    Or laid great bases for eternity,
    1865Which proves more short than waste or ruining?
    Have I not seen dwellers on form and favor
    Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent,
    For compound sweet forgoing simple savor,
    Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent?
    1870No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
    And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
    Which is not mixed with seconds, knows no art,
    But mutual render, only me for thee.
    Hence, thou suborned informer, a true soul
    1875 When most impeached, stands least in thy control.
    126
    O thou my lovely boy who in thy power
    Dost hold time's fickle glass, his sickle hour,
    Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st
    1880Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow'st.
    If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
    As thou goest onwards still will pluck thee back,
    She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
    May time disgrace, and wretched minutes kill.
    1885Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure:
    She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure!
    Her audit, though delayed, answered must be,
    And her quietus is to render thee.
    ----------------
    1890 ----------------
    127
    In the old age black was not counted fair,
    Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;
    But now is black beauty's successive heir,
    1895And beauty slandered with a bastard shame.
    For since each hand hath put on nature's power,
    Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,
    Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
    But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
    1900Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,
    Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
    At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
    Sland'ring creation with a false esteem.
    Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
    1905 That every tongue says beauty should look so.
    128
    How oft when thou, my music, music play'st
    Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
    With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st
    1910The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
    Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap,
    To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
    Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
    At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!
    1915To be so tickled they would change their state
    And situation with those dancing chips,
    O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
    Making dead wood more blessed than living lips.
    Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
    1920 Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
    129
    Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame
    Is lust in action; and till action, lust
    Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame,
    1925Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
    Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight;
    Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
    Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
    On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
    1930Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
    Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
    A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
    Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
    All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
    1935 To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
    130
    My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
    Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
    If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
    1940If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head;
    I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
    But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
    And in some perfumes is there more delight
    Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
    1945I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
    That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
    I grant I never saw a goddess go--
    My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
    And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
    1950 As any she belied with false compare.
    131
    Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
    As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel;
    For well thou know'st to my dear doting heart
    1955Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.
    Yet in good faith some say, that thee behold,
    Thy face hath not the power to make love groan;
    To say they err, I dare not be so bold,
    Although I swear it to myself alone.
    1960And to be sure that is not false, I swear
    A thousand groans but thinking on thy face;
    One on another's neck do witness bear
    Thy black is fairest in my judgment's place.
    In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,
    1965 And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.
    132
    Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
    Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
    Have put on black, and loving mourners be,
    1970Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
    And truly, not the morning sun of heaven
    Better becomes the grey cheeks of the East,
    Nor that full star that ushers in the even
    Doth half that glory to the sober West
    1975As those two mourning eyes become thy face:
    Oh, let it then as well beseem thy heart
    To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
    And suit thy pity like in every part.
    Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
    1980 And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
    133
    Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
    For that deep wound it gives my friend and me;
    Is't not enough to torture me alone,
    1985But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be?
    Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
    And my next self thou harder hast engrossed.
    Of him, myself, and thee I am forsaken,
    A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed.
    1990Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward;
    But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail.
    Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
    Thou canst not then use rigor in my jail.
    And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee,
    1995 Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
    134
    So now I have confessed that he is thine,
    And I myself am mortgaged to thy will,
    Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine
    2000Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still;
    But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
    For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
    He learned but surety-like to write for me,
    Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
    2005The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
    Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use,
    And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake;
    So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
    Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me;
    2010 He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
    135
    Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
    And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;
    More than enough am I, that vex thee still,
    2015To thy sweet will making addition thus.
    Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
    Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
    Shall will in others seem right gracious,
    And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
    2020The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
    And in abundance addeth to his store;
    So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will
    One will of mine, to make thy large Will more.
    Let no unkind no fair beseechers kill;
    2025 Think all but one, and me in that one Will.
    136
    If thy soul check thee that I come so near,
    Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,
    And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;
    2030Thus far for love my love-suit sweet fulfil.
    Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love,
    Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one;
    In things of great receipt with ease we prove
    Among a number one is reckoned none.
    2035Then in the number let me pass untold,
    Though in thy store's account I one must be.
    For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold
    That nothing, me, a something sweet to thee.
    Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
    2040 And then thou lov'st me, for my name is Will.
    137
    Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
    That they behold, and see not what they see?
    They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
    2045Yet what the best is, take the worst to be.
    If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,
    Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
    Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks,
    Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
    2050Why should my heart think that a several plot
    Which my heart knows the wide world's common place?
    Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
    To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
    In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,
    2055 And to this false plague are they now transferred.
    138
    When my love swears that she is made of truth,
    I do believe her, though I know she lies,
    That she might think me some untutored youth
    2060Unlearnèd in the world's false subtleties.
    Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
    Although she knows my days are past the best,
    Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue;
    On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
    2065But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
    And wherefore say not I that I am old?
    O love's best habit is in seeming trust,
    And age in love loves not to have years told.
    Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
    2070 And in our faults by lies we flattered be.
    139
    O call not me to justify the wrong
    That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;
    Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue;
    2075Use power with power, and slay me not by art.
    Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere; but in my sight,
    Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside.
    What need'st thou wound with cunning, when thy might
    Is more than my o'erpressed defense can bide?
    2080Let me excuse thee: ah, my love well knows
    Her pretty looks have been mine enemies,
    And therefore from my face she turns my foes
    That they elsewhere might dart their injuries.
    Yet do not so, but since I am near slain,
    2085 Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.
    140
    Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press
    My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain,
    Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
    2090The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
    If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
    Though not to love, yet love to tell me so,
    As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
    No news but health from their physicians know.
    2095For if I should despair, I should grow mad,
    And in my madness might speak ill of thee;
    Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
    Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
    That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
    2100 Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
    141
    In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
    For they in thee a thousand errors note;
    But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
    2105Who in despite of view is pleased to dote.
    Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted,
    Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,
    Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
    To any sensual feast with thee alone:
    2110But my five wits, nor my five senses, can
    Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
    Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,
    Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be:
    Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
    2115 That she that makes me sin, awards me pain.
    142
    Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
    Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving;
    Oh, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
    2120And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
    Or if it do, not from those lips of thine,
    That have profaned their scarlet ornaments,
    And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine,
    Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents.
    2125Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov'st those
    Whom thine eyes woo, as mine importune thee,
    Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows,
    Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
    If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
    2130 By self-example mayst thou be denied.
    143
    Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
    One of her feathered creatures broke away,
    Sets down her babe, and makes all swift dispatch
    2135In pursuit of the thing she would have stay;
    Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
    Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
    To follow that which flies before her face,
    Not prizing her poor infant's discontent:
    2140So run'st thou after that which flies from thee,
    Whilst I, thy babe, chase thee afar behind.
    But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
    And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind.
    So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will,
    2145 If thou turn back and my loud crying still.
    144
    Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
    Which, like two spirits, do suggest me still:
    The better angel is a man right fair,
    2150The worser spirit a woman colored ill.
    To win me soon to hell my female evil
    Tempteth my better angel from my side,
    And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
    Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
    2155And whether that my angel be turned fiend
    Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
    But being both from me, both to each friend,
    I guess one angel in another's hell.
    Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
    2160Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
    145
    Those lips that Love's own hand did make
    Breathed forth the sound that said "I hate,"
    To me, that languished for her sake;
    2165But when she saw my woeful state,
    Straight in her heart did mercy come,
    Chiding that tongue that, ever sweet,
    Was used in giving gentle doom,
    And taught it thus anew to greet:
    2170"I hate" she altered with an end
    That followed it as gentle day
    Doth follow night who, like a fiend,
    From heaven to hell is flown away.
    "I hate" from "hate" away she threw,
    2175 And saved my life, saying "not you."
    146
    Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
    Thrall to these rebel powers that thee array,
    Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
    2180Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
    Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
    Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
    Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
    Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
    2185Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
    And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
    Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross,
    Within be fed, without be rich no more.
    So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
    2190 And death once dead, there's no more dying then.
    147
    My love is as a fever, longing still
    For that which longer nurseth the disease,
    Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
    2195Th'uncertain sickly appetite to please:
    My reason, the physician to my love,
    Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
    Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
    Desire is death, which physic did except.
    2200Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
    And frantic-mad with evermore unrest,
    My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
    At random from the truth vainly expressed.
    For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
    2205 Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
    148
    O me! What eyes hath love put in my head,
    Which have no correspondence with true sight?
    Or if they have, where is my judgment fled,
    2210That censures falsely what they see aright?
    If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
    What means the world to say it is not so?
    If it be not, then love doth well denote,
    Love's eye is not so true as all men's no,
    2215How can it? O how can love's eye be true,
    That is so vexed with watching and with tears?
    No marvel then though I mistake my view:
    The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears.
    O cunning love, with tears thou keep'st me blind,
    2220 Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.
    149
    Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not,
    When I against myself with thee partake?
    Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
    2225Am of myself--all, tyrant, for thy sake?
    Who hateth thee, that I do call my friend?
    On whom frown'st thou, that I do fawn upon?
    Nay, if thou lour'st on me, do I not spend
    Revenge upon myself with present moan?
    2230What merit do I in myself respect
    That is so proud thy service to despise,
    When all my best doth worship thy defect,
    Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?
    But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind:
    2235 Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind.
    150
    O from what power hast thou this powerful might,
    With insufficiency my heart to sway,
    To make me give the lie to my true sight,
    2240And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?
    Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,
    That in the very refuse of thy deeds
    There is such strength and warrantise of skill
    That in my mind thy worst all best exceeds?
    2245Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
    The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
    Oh, though I love what others do abhor,
    With others thou shouldst not abhor my state.
    If thy unworthiness raised love in me,
    2250 More worthy I to be beloved of thee.
    151
    Love is too young to know what conscience is;
    Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
    Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
    2255Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.
    For, thou betraying me, I do betray
    My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
    My soul doth tell my body that he may
    Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,
    2260But rising at thy name doth point out thee
    As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
    He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
    To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
    No want of conscience hold it that I call
    2265 Her "love." for whose dear love I rise and fall.
    152
    In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
    But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing,
    In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn,
    2270In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
    But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
    When I break twenty? I am perjured most,
    For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
    And all my honest faith in thee is lost.
    2275For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
    Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy,
    And to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness,
    Or made them swear against the thing they see.
    For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured eye,
    2280 To swear against the truth so foul a lie.
    153
    Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep;
    A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
    And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
    2285In a cold valley-fountain of that ground,
    Which borrowed from this holy fire of Love
    A dateless lively heat still to endure,
    And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove
    Against strange maladies a sovereign cure:
    2290But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
    The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
    I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
    And thither hied, a sad distempered guest,
    But found no cure; the bath for my help lies
    2295 Where Cupid got new fire--my mistress' eyes.
    154
    The little love-god lying once asleep,
    Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
    Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep
    2300Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand
    The fairest votary took up that fire
    Which many legions of true hearts had warmed;
    And so the general of hot desire
    Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.
    2305This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
    Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual,
    Growing a bath and healthful remedy
    For men diseased, but I, my mistress' thrall,
    Came there for cure, and this by that I prove:
    2310 Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.
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