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- Edition: The Sonnets
The Sonnets (Modern)
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1531103
1532Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
1533That, having such a scope to show her pride,
1534The argument all bare is of more worth
1535Than when it hath my added praise beside.
1536O blame me not if I no more can write!
1537Look in your glass, and there appears a face
1538That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
1539Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
1540Were it not sinful, then, striving to mend,
1541To mar the subject that before was well?
1542For to no other pass my verses tend
1543Than of your graces and your gifts to tell.
1544 And more, much more, than in my verse can sit
1545 Your own glass shows you, when you look in it.
1546104
1547To me, fair friend, you never can be old;
1548For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
1549Such seems your beauty still: three winters cold
1550Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;
1551Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
1552In process of the seasons have I seen;
1553Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
1554Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
1555Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
1556Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
1557So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
1558Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived;
1559 For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,
1560 Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
1561105
1562Let not my love be called idolatry,
1563Nor my beloved as an idol show,
1564Since all alike my songs and praises be
1565To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
1566Kind is my love today, tomorrow kind,
1567Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
1568Therefore my verse, to constancy confined,
1569One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
1570Fair, kind, and true is all my argument;
1571Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words,
1572And in this change is my invention spent,
1573Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.
1574 Fair, kind, and true have often lived alone,
1575 Which three, till now, never kept seat in one.