Then let not winter’s ragged hand defaceIn thee thy summer ere thou be distilled.Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some placeWith beauty’s treasure ere it be self-killed.That use is not forbidden usuryWhich 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 thy…
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth viewWant 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.Thy outward thus with outward praise is crowned,But those same tongues that give thee so thine ownIn other accents do this praise…
Ah, wherefore with infection should he live,And with his presence grace impiety,That sin by him advantage should achieve,And lace it self with his society?Why should false painting imitate his cheek,And steal dead seeming of his living hue?Why should poor beauty indirectly seekRoses of shadow, since his rose is true?Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt…
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,And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,And strength by limping sway disablèdAnd art made tongue-tied by authority,And folly doctor-like controlling skill,And simple truth miscalled simplicity,And captive…
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?O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold outAgainst the wrackful siege of batt’ring days,When rocks impregnable are not so stout,Nor gates of steel so strong but Time…
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defacedThe rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down-razedAnd brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage on the kingdom of the shore,And the firm soil win of the watery main,Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;When…
Against my love shall be as I am nowWith Time’s injurious hand crushed and o’erworn,When hours have drained his blood and filled his browWith lines and wrinkles, when his youthful mornHath travelled on to age’s steepy night,And all those beauties whereof now he’s kingAre vanishing, or vanished out of sight,Stealing away the treasure of his…
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.Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,No shape so true, no truth of such account;And for my self mine own worth do define,As I all other…
Is it thy will thy image should keep openMy heavy eyelids to the weary night?Dost thou desire my slumbers should be brokenWhile shadows like to thee do mock my sight?Is it thy spirit that thou send’st from theeSo far from home into my deeds to pry,To find out shames and idle hours in me,The scope…
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.Nativity once in the main of light,Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned,Crookèd eclipses ‘gainst his glory fight,And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.Time doth transfix…