textfiles/etext/AUTHORS/SHAKESPEARE/sonnets.txt

[This text of Shakespeare's Sonnets is based on facsimiles of the
Huntington-Bridgewater copy and the Bodleian copy of the 1609 Quarto,
Apsley imprint.  The text has been compared to the Folger Shakespeare
Library's 1609 Quarto of the Sonnets.  It was entered by Hardy M. Cook,
<hmcook@boe00.minc.umd.edu>, and submitted to the SHAKSPER Global
Electronic Conference <SHAKSPER@utoronto.bitnet> in October 1991.
It may be FREELY distributed for scholarly, educational, or literary
purposes, so long as this paragraph remains intact, and no fee or
copyright is claimed.  Use of this text for commercial purposes is
strictly forbidden.]
 
 
 
          TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.
            THESE.INSVING.SONNETS.
            Mr.W.H.ALL.HAPPINESSE.
              AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.
                   PROMISED.
                      BY.
             OVR.EVER-LIVING.POET.
                    WISHETH.
               THE.WELL-WISHING.
                 ADVENTVRER.IN.
                    SETTING.
                           FORTH.
 
 
 
 
                        T. T.
 
              SHAKE-SPEARES,
              <it>SONNETS<it>.
 
FRom fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauties <it>Rose<it> might neuer die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heire might beare his memory:
But thou contracted to thine owne bright eyes,
Feed'st thy lights flame with selfe substantiall fewell,
Making a famine where aboundance lies,
Thy selfe thy foe,to thy sweet selfe too cruell:
Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament,
And only herauld to the gaudy spring,
Within thine owne bud buriest thy content,
And tender chorle makst wast in niggarding:
  Pitty the world, or else this glutton be,
  To eate the worlds due,by the graue and thee.
 
                     2
WHen fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow,
And digge deep trenches in thy beauties field,
Thy youthes proud liuery so gazed on now,
Wil be a totter'd weed of smal worth held:
Then being askt,where all thy beautie lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty daies;
To say within thine owne deepe sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame,and thriftlesse praise.
How much more praise deseru'd thy beauties vse,
If thou couldst answere this faire child of mine
Shall sum my count,and make my old excuse
Proouing his beautie by succession thine.
  This were to be new made when thou art ould,
  And see thy blood warme when thou feel'st it could,
 
                        3
LOoke in thy glasse and tell the face thou vewest,
Now is the time that face should forme an other,
Whose fresh repaire if now thou not renewest,
Thou doo'st beguile the world, vnblesse some mother.
For where is she so faire whose vn-eard wombe
Disdaines the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tombe,
Of his selfe loue to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mothers glasse and she in thee
Calls backe the louely Aprill of her prime,
So thou through windowes of thine age shalt see,
Dispight of wrinkles this thy goulden time.
  But if thou liue remembred not to be,
  Die single and thine Image dies with thee.
 
                          4
VNthrifty louelinesse why dost thou spend,
Vpon thy selfe thy beauties legacy?
Natures bequest giues nothing but doth lend,
And being franck she lends to those are free:
Then beautious nigard why doost thou abuse,
The bountious largesse giuen thee to giue?
Profitles vserer why do ost thou vse
So great a summe of summes yet can'st not liue?
For hauing traffike with thy selfe alone,
Thou of thy selfe thy sweet selfe dost deceaue,
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable <it>Audit<it> can'st thou leaue?
 Thy vnus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee,
 Which vsed liues th'executor to be.
 
                         5
THose howers that with gentle worke did frame,
The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell
Will play the tirants to the very same,
And that vnfaire which fairely doth excell:
For neuer resting time leads Summer on,
To hidious winter and confounds him there,
Sap checkt with frost and lustie leau's quite gon.
Beauty ore-snow'd and barenes euery where,
The were not summers distillation left
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glasse,
Beauties effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor noe remembrance what it was.
  But flowers distil'd though they with winter meete,
  Leese but their show,their substance still liues sweet.
 
 
                         6
THen let not winters wragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer ere thou be distil'd:
Make sweet some viall;treasure thou some place,
With beautits treasure ere it be selfe kil'd:
That vse is not forbiffen vsery,
Which happies those that pay the willing lone;
That's for thy selfe to breed an other thee,
Or ten times happier be it ten for one,
Ten times thy selfe were happier then thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee,
Then what could death doe if thou should'st depart,
Leauing thee liuing in posterity?
  Be not selfe-wild for thou art much too faire,
  To be deaths conquest and make wormes thine heire.
 
                     7
LOe in the Orient when the gracious light,
Lifts vp his burning head,each vnder eye
Doth homage to his new appearing sight,
Seruing with lookes his sacred maiesty,
And hauing climb'd the steepe vp heauenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortall lookes adore beauty still,
Attending on his goulden pilgrimage:
But when from high-most pich with wery car,
Like feeble age he reeleth from the day,
The eyes(fore dutious)now conuerted are
From his low tract and looke an other way:
  So thou,thy selfe out-going in thy noon:
  Vnlook'd on diest vnlesse thou get a sonne.
 
                      8
MVsick to heare,why hear'st thou musick sadly,
Sweets with sweets warre not ,ioy delights in ioy:
Why lou'st thou that which thou receaust not gladly,
Or else receau'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of  well tuned sounds,
By vnions married do offend thine eare,
They do but sweetly chide thee,who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou should'st beare:
Marke how one string sweet husband to an other,
Strikes each in each by mutuall ordering;
Resembling sire,and child,and happy mother,
Who all in one,one pleasing note so sing:
 Whose speechlesse song being many,seeming one,
 Sings this to thee thou single wilt proue none.
 
                            9.
IS it for feare to wet a widdowes eye,
That thou consum'st thy selfe in single life?
Ah;if thou issulesse shalt hap to die,
The world will waile thee like a makelesse wife,
The world wilbe thy widdow and still weepe,
That thou no forme of thee hast left behind,
When euery priuat widdow well may keepe,
By childrens eyes,her husbands shape in minde:
Looke what an vnthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place,for still the world inioyes it
But beauties waste hath in the world an end,
And kept vnvsde the vser so destroyes it:
 No loue toward others in that bosome fits
 That on himselfe such murdrous shame commits.
 
 
                        IO
FOr shame deny that thou bear'st loue to any
Who for thy selfe art so vnprouident
Graunt if thou wilt,thou art belou'd of many,
But that thou none lou'st is most euident:
For thou art so possest with murdrous hate,
That gainst thy selfe thou stickst not to conspire,
Seeking that beautious roofe to ruinate
Which to repaire should be thy chiefe desire :
O change thy thought,that I may change my minde,
Shall hate be fairer log'd then gentle loue?
Be as thy presence is gracious and kind,
Or to thy selfe at least kind harted proue,
  Make thee an other selfe for loue of me,
  That beauty still may liue in thine or thee.
 
                        II
AS fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow'st,
In one of thine,from that which thou departest,
And that fresh bloud which yongly thou bestow'st,
Thou maist call thine,when thou from youth conuertest,
Herein liues wisdome,beauty,and increase,
Without this follie,age,and could decay,
If all were minded so,the times should cease,
And threescoore yeare would make the world away:
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh,featurelesse,and rude ,barrenly perrish,
Looke whom she best indow'st,she gaue the more;
Which bountious guift thou shouldst in bounty cherrish,
 She caru'd thee for her seale,and ment therby,
 Thou shouldst print more,not let that coppy die.
 
                      I2
WHen I doe count the clock that tels the time,
And see the braue day sunck in hidious night,
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls or siluer'd ore with white:
When lofty trees I see barren of leaues,
Which erst from heat did canopie the herd
And Sommers greene all girded vp in sheaues
Borne on the beare with white and bristly beard:
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must goe,
Since sweets and beauties do them-selues forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
 And nothing gainst Times sieth can make defence
 Saue breed to braue him,when he takes thee hence.
 
                      I3
O That you were yourself,but loue you are
No longer yours,then you yourself here liue,
Against this cumming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other giue.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination,then you were
You self again after your selfes decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet forme should beare.
Who lets so faire a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might vphold
Against the stormy gusts of winters day
And barren rage of deaths eternall cold?
  O none but vnthrifts, deare my loue you know,
  You had a Father,let your son say so.
 
 
                        I4
NOt from the stars do I my iudgement plucke,
And yet me thinkes I haue Astronomy,
But not to tell of good,or euil lucke,
Of plagues,of dearths,or seasons quallity,
Nor can I fortune to breef mynuits tell;
Pointing to each his thunder,raine and winde,
Or say with Princes if it shal go wel
By oft predict that I in heauen finde.
But from thine eies my knowledge I deriue,
And constant stars in them I read such art
As truth and beautie shal together thriue
If from thyself,to store thou wouldst conuert:
  Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
  Thy end is Truthes and Beauties doome and date.
 
                      I5
WHen I consider euery thing that growes
Holds in perfection but a little moment.
That this huge stage presenteth nought but showes
Whereon the Stars in secret influence comment.
When I perceiue that men as plants increase,
Cheared and checkt euen by the selfe-same skie:
Vaunt in their youthfull sap,at height decrease,
And were their braue state out of memory.
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay,
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wastfull time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
  And all in war with Time for loue of you
  As he takes from you,I ingraft you new.
 
                          I6
BVt wherefore do not you a mightier waie
Make warre vppon this bloodie tirant time?
And fortifie your selfe in your decay
With meanes more blessed then my barren rime?
Now stand you on the top of happie houres,
And many maiden gardens yet vnset,
With vertuous wish would beare your liuing flowers,
Much liker then your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repaire
Which this (Time's pensel or my pupill pen)
Neither in inward worth nor outward faire
Can make you liue your selfe in eies of men.
  To giue away your selfe,keeps your selfe still,
  And you must liue drawne by your owne sweet skill,
 
                      I7
WHo will beleeue my verse in time to come
If it were fild with your most high deserts?
Though yet heauen knowes it is but as a tombe
Which hides your life , and shewes not halfe your parts:
If 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 heauenly touches nere toucht earthly faces.
So should my papers (yellowed with their age)
Be scorn'd,like old men of lesse truth then tongue,
And your true rights be termd a Poets rage,
And stretched miter of an Antique song.
  But were some childe of yours aliue that time,
  You should liue twice in it,and in my rime.
 
                         I8.
SHall I compare thee to a Summers day?
Thou art more louely and more temperate:
Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie,
And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heauen shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,
And euery faire from faire some-time declines,
By chance,or natures changing course vntrim'd:
But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade,
Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade,
When in eternall lines to time thou grow'st,
 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
 So long liues this,and this giues life to thee,
 
                        I9
DEuouring time blunt thou the Lyons pawes,
And make the earth deuoure her owne sweet brood,
Plucke the keene teeth from the fierce Tygers yawes,
And burne the long liu'd Phaenix in her blood,
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do what ere thou wilt swift-footed time
To the wide world and all her fading sweets:
But I forbid thee one most hainous crime,
O carue not with thy howers my loues faire brow,
Nor draw noe lines there with thine antique pen,
Him in thy course vntainted doe allow,
For beauties patterne to succeeding men.
  Yet doe thy worst ould Time despight thy wrong,
  My loue shall in my verse euer liue young.
 
                 20
A Womans face with natures owne hand painted,
Haste thou the Master Mistris of my passion,
A womans gentle hart but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false womens fashion,
An eye more bright then theirs,lesse false in rowling:
Gilding the obiect where-vpon it gazeth,
A man in hew all <it>Hews<it> in his controwling,
Which steales mens eyes and womens soules amaseth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a dotinge,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
  But since she prickt thee out for womens pleasure,
  Mine be thy loue and thy loues vse their treasure.
 
                         2I
SO is it not with me as with that Muse,
Stird by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heauen itself for ornament doth vse,
And euery faire with his faire doth reherse,
Making a coopelment of proud compare
With Sunne and Moone,with earth and seas rich gems:
With Aprills first borne flowers and all things rare,
That heauens ayre in this huge rondure hems,
O let me true in loue but truly write,
And then beleeue me,my loue is as faire,
As any mothers childe,though not so bright
As those gould candells fixt in heauens ayer:
  Let them say more that like of heare-say well,
  I will not prayse that purpose not to sell.
 
                       22
MY glasse shall not perswade me I am ould,
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee times forrwes I behould,
Then look I death my daies should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth couer thee,
Is but the seemely rayment of my heart,
Which in thy brest doth liue,as thine in me,
How can I then be elder then thou art?
O therefore loue be of thy selfe so wary,
As I not for my selfe,but for thee will,
Bearing thy heart which I will keepe so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill,
  Presume not on thy heart when mine is slaine,
  Thou gau'st me thine not to giue back againe.
 
                       23
AS an vnperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his feare is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing repleat with too much rage,
Whose strengths abondance weakens his owne heart;
So I for feare of trust,forget to say,
The perfect ceremony of loues right,
And in mine owne loues strength seeme to decay,
Ore-charg'd with burthen of mine owne loues might:
O let my books be then the eloquence,
And domb presagers of my speaking brest,
Who pleade for loue,and look for recompence,
More then that tonge that more hath more exprest.
  O learne to read what silent loue hath writ,
  To heare wit eies belongs to loues fine wiht.
 
                       24
MIne eye hath play'd the painter and hath steeld,
Thy beauties forme in table of my heart,
My body is the frame wherein ti's held,
And perspectiue it is best Painters art.
For through the Painter must you see his skill,
To finde where your true Image pictur'd lies,
Which in my bosomes shop is hanging stil,
That hath his windowes glazed with thine eyes:
Now see what good-turnes eyes for eies haue done,
Mine eyes haue drawne thy shape,and thine for me
Are windowes to my brest, where-through the Sun
Delights to peepe,to gaze therein on thee
  Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art
  They draw but what they see,know not the hart.
 
                         25
LEt those who are in fauor with their stars,
Of publike honour and proud titles bost,
Whilst I whome fortune of such tryumph bars
Vnlookt for ioy in that I honour most;
Great Princes fauorites their faire leaues spread,
But as the Marygold at the suns eye,
And in them-selues their pride lies buried,
For at a frowne they in their glory die.
The painefull warrier famosed for worth,
After a thousand victories once foild,
Is from the booke of honour rased quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toild:
  Then happy I that loue and am beloued
  Where I may not remoue,nor be remoued.
 
                    26
LOrd of my loue,to whome in vassalage
Thy merrit hath my dutie strongly knit;
To thee I send this written ambassage
To witnesse duty, not to shew my wit.
Duty so great,which wit so poore as mine
May make seeme bare,in wanting words to shew it;
But that I hope some good conceipt of thine
In thy soules thought(all naked) will bestow it:
Till whatsoeuer star that guides my mouing,
Points on me gratiously with fair aspect,
And puts apparrell on my tottered louing,
To show me worthy of their sweet respect,
   Then may I dare to boast how I doe loue thee,
   Till then,not show my head where thou maist proue me
 
                        27
WEary with toyle,I hast me to my bed,
The deare repose for lims with trauaill tired,
But then begins a iourny in my head
To worke my mind,when boddies work's expired.
For then my thoughts(from far where I abide)
Intend a zelous pilgrimage to thee,
And keepe my drooping eye-lids open wide,
Looking on darknes which the blind doe see.
Saue that my soules imaginary sight
Presents their shaddoe to my sightles view,
Which like a iewel(hunge in ghastly night)
Makes blacke night beautious,and her old face new.
  Loe thus by day my lims,by night my mind,
  For thee,and for my selfe,noe quiet finde.
 
                     28
HOw can I then returne in happy plight
That am debard the benifit of rest?
When daies oppression is not eazd by night,
But day by night and night by day oprest.
And each(though enimes to ethers raigne)
Doe in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toyle,the other to complaine
How far I toyle,still farther off from thee.
I tell the Day to please him thou art bright,
And do'st him grace when clouds doe blot the heauen:
So flatter I the swart complexiond night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou guil'st th'eauen.
 But day doth daily draw my sorrowes longer, (stronger
 And night doth nightly make greefes length seeme
 
                    29
WHen in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes,
I all alone beweepe my out-cast state,
And trouble deafe heauen with my bootlesse cries.
And looke vpon my selfe and curse my fate.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him,like him with friends possest,
Desiring this mans art,and that mans skope,
With what I most inioy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my selfe almost despising,
Haplye I thinke on thee,and then my state,
(Like to the Larke at breake of daye arising)
From sullen earth sings himns at Heauens gate,
  For thy sweet loue remembred such welth brings,
  That then I skorne to change my state with Kings.
 
                     30
WHen to the Sessions of sweet silent thought,
I sommon vp remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lacke of many a thing I sought.
And with old woes new waile my deare times waste:
Then can I drowne an eye(vn-vsd to flow)
For precious friends hid in deaths dateles night,
And weepe a fresh loues long since canceld woe,
And mone th'expence of many a vannisht sight.
Then can I greeue at greeuances fore-gon,
And heauily from woe to woe tell ore
The sad account of fore-bemoned mone,
Which I new pay as if not payd before.
 But if the while I thinke on thee (deare friend)
 All losses are restord,and sorrowes end.
 
                      3I
Thy bosome is indeared with all hearts,
Which I by lacking haue supposed dead,
And there raignes Loue and all Loues louing parts,
And all those friends which I thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious teare
Hath deare religious loue stolne from mine eye,
As interest of the dead,which now appeare,
But things remou'd that hidden in there lie.
Thou art the graue where buried loue doth liue,
Hung with the tropheis of my louers gon,
Who all their parts of me to thee did giue,
That due of many,now is thine alone.
  Their images I lou'd, I view in thee,
  And thou(all they)hast all the all of me.
 
                        32
IF thou suruiue my well contented daie,
When that churle death my bones with dust shall couer
And shalt by fortune once more re-suruay:
These poore rude lines of thy deceased Louer:
Compare them with the bett'ring of the time,
And though they be out-stript by euery pen,
Reserue them for my loue,not for their rime,
Exceeded by the hight of happier men.
Oh then voutsafe me but this louing thought,
Had my friends Muse growne with this growing age,
A dearer birth then this his loue had brought:
To march in ranckes of better equipage:
  But since he died and Poets better proue,
  Theirs for their stile ile read,his for his loue.
 
                          33
FVll many a glorious morning haue I seene,
Flatter the mountaine tops with soueraine eie,
Kissing with golden face the meadowes greene;
Gilding pale streames with heauenly alcumy:
Anon permit the basest cloudes to ride,
With ougly rack on his celestiall face,
And from the for-lorne world his visage hide
Stealing vnseene to west with this disgrace:
Euen so my Sunne one early morne did shine,
With all triumphant splendor on my brow,
But out alack,he was but one houre mine,
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
  Yet him for this,my loue no whit disdaineth,
  Suns of the world may staine,whe[n] heauens sun staineth.
 
                 34
WHy didst thou promise such a beautious day,
And make me trauaile forth without my cloake,
To let bace cloudes ore-take me in my way,
Hiding thy brau'ry in their rotten smoke.
Tis not enough that through the cloude thou breake,
To dry the raine on my storme-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salue can speake,
That heales the wound,and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame giue phisicke to my griefe,
Though thou repent , yet I haue still the losse,
Th'offenders sorrow lends but weake reliefe
To him that beares the strong offenses losse.
  Ah but those teares are pearle which thy loue sheeds,
  And they are ritch,and ransome all ill deeds.
 
                   35
NO more bee greeu'd at that which thou hast done,
Roses haue thornes,and siluer fountaines mud,
Cloudes and eclipses staine both Moone and Sunne,
And loathsome canker liues in sweetest bud.
All men make faults,and euen I in this,
Authorizing thy trespas with compare,
My selfe corrupting saluing thy amisse,
Excusing their sins more then their sins are:
For to thy sensuall fault I bring in sence,
Thy aduerse party is thy Aduocate,
And gainst my selfe a lawfull plea commence,
Such ciuill war is in my loue and hate,
  That I an accessary needs must be,
  To that sweet theefe which sourely robs from me,
 
                      36
LEt me confesse that we two must be twaine,
Although our vndeuided loues are one:
So shall those blots that do with me remaine,
Without thy helpe , by me be borne alone.
In our two loues there is but one respect,
Though in our liues a seperable spight,
Which though it alter not loues sole effect,
Yet doth it steale sweet houres from loues delight,
I may not euer-more acknowledge thee,
Least my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with publike kindnesse honour me,
Vnlesse thou take that honour from thy name:
  But doe not so,I loue thee in such sort,
  As thou being mine,mine is thy good report.
 
                         37
AS a decrepit father takes delight,
To see his actiue childe do deeds of youth,
So I , made lame by Fortunes dearest spight
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty,birth,or wealth,or wit,
Or any of these all,or all,or more
Intitled in their parts,do crowned sit,
I make my loue ingrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame,poore,nor despis'd,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance giue,
That I in thy abundance am suffic'd,
And by a part of all thy glory liue:
  Looke what is best,that best I wish in thee,
  This wish I haue,then ten times happy me.
 
                    38
HOw can my Muse want subiect to inuent
While thou dost breathe that poor'st into my verse,
Thine owne sweet argument,to excellent,
For euery vulgar paper to rehearse:
Oh giue thy selfe the thankes if aught in me,
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight,
For who's so dumbe that cannot write to thee,
When thou thy selfe dost giue inuention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse,ten times more in worth
Then those old nine which rimers inuocate,
And he that calls on thee,let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to out-liue long date.
  If my slight Muse doe please these curious daies,
  The paine be mine,but thine shal be the praise.
 
                   39
OH how thy worth with manners may I singe,
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine owne praise to mine owne selfe bring;
And what is't but mine owne when I praise thee,
Euen for this,let vs diuided liue,
And our deare loue loose name of single one,
That by this seperation I may giue:
That due to thee which thou deseru'st alone:
Oh absence what a torment wouldst thou proue,
Were it not thy soure leisure gaue sweet leaue,
To entertaine the time with thoughts of loue,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly dost deceiue.
 And that thou teachest how to make one twaine,
 By praising him here who doth hence remaine.
 
                      40
TAke all my loues,my loue,yea take them all,
What hast thou then more then thou hadst before?
No loue,my loue,that thou maist true loue call,
All mine was thine,before thou hadst this more:
Then if for my loue,thou my loue receiuest,
I cannot blame thee,for my loue thou vsest,
But yet be blam'd,if thou this selfe deceauest
By willful taste of what thy selfe refusest.
I doe forgiue thy robb'rie gentle theefe
Although thou steale thee all my pouerty:
And yet loue knowes it is a greater griefe
To beare loues wrong,then hates knowne iniury.
  Lasciuious grace,in whom all il wel showes,
  Kill me with spights yet we must not be foes.
 
                     4I
THose pretty wrongs that liberty commits,
When I am some-time absent from thy heart,
Thy beautie,and thy yeares full well befits,
For still temptation followes where thou art.
Gentle thou art,and therefore to be wonne,
Beautious thou art,therefore to be assailed.
And when a woman woes,what womans sonne,
Will sourely leaue her till he haue preuailed.
Aye me,but yet thou mightst my seate forbeare,
And chide thy beauty,and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their ryot euen there
Where thou art forst to breake a two-fold truth:
 Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
 Thine by thy beautie beeing false to me.
 
                       42
THat thou hast her it is not all my griefe,
And yet it may be said I lou'd her deerely,
That she hath thee is of my wayling cheefe,
A losse in loue that touches me more neerely.
Louing offendors thus I will excuse yee,
Thou doost loue her,because thou knowst I loue her,
And for my sake euen so doth she abuse me,
Suffring my friend for my sake to approoue her,
If I loose thee,my losse is my loues gaine,
And loosing her,my friend hath found that losse,
Both finde each other,and I loose both twaine,
And both for my sake lay on me this crosse,
  But here's the ioy,my friend and I are one,
  Sweete flattery,then she loues but me alone.
 
                  43
WHen most I winke then doe mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things vnrespected,
But when I sleepe,in dreames they looke on thee,
And darkely bright,are bright in darke directed.
Then thou whose shaddow shaddowes doth make bright,
How would thy shadowes forme,forme happy show,
To the cleere day with thy much cleerer light,
When to vn-seeing eyes thy shade shines so?
How would(I say)mine eyes be blessed made,
By looking on thee in the liuing day?
When in dead night their faire imperfect shade
Through heauy sleepe on sightlesse eyes doth stay?
  All dayes are nights to see till I see thee,
  And nights bright daies when dreams do shew thee me.
 
                          44
IF the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Iniurious distance should not stop my way,
For then despight of space I would be brought,
From limits farre remote,where thou doost stay,
No matter then although my foote did stand
Vpon the farthest earth remoou'd from thee,
For nimble thought can iumpe both sea and land,
As soone as thinke the place where he would be.
But ah,thought kills me that I am not thought
To leape large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend,times leasure with my mone.
  Receiuing naughts by elements so sloe,
  But heauie teares,badges of eithers woe.
 
                       45
THe other two,slight ayre,and purging fire,
Are both with thee,where euer I abide,
The first my thought,the other my desire,
These present absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker Elements are gone
In tender Embassie of loue to thee,
My life being made of foure,with two alone,
Sinkes downe to death,opprest with melancholie.
Vntill liues composition be recured,
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who euen but now come back againe assured,
Of their fair health,recounting it to me.
  This told,I ioy,but then no longer glad,
  I send them back againe and straight grow sad.
 
                      46
MIne eye and heart are at a mortall warre,
How to deuide the conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye,my heart their pictures sight would barre,
My heart,mine eye the freedome of that right,
My heart doth plead that thou in him doost lye,
(A closet neuer pearst with christall eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And sayes in him their faire appearance lyes.
To side this title is impannelled
A quest of thoughts,all tennants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The cleere eyes moyitie,and the deare hearts part.
  As thus,mine eyes due is their outward part,
  And my hearts right,their inward loue of heart.
 
                        47
BEtwixt mine eye and heart a league is tooke,
And each doth good turnes now vnto the other,
When that mine eye is famisht for a looke,
Or heart in loue with sighes himselfe doth smother;
With my loues picture then my eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids my heart:
An other time mine eye is my hearts guest,
And in his thoughts of loue doth share a part.
So either by thy picture or my loue,
Thy seife away,are present still with me,
For thou nor farther then my thoughts canst moue,
And I am still with them,and they with thee.
  Or if they sleepe, thy picture in my sight
  Awakes my heart,to hearts and eyes delight.
 
                    48
HOw carefull was I when I tooke my way,
Each trifle vnder truest barres to thrust,
That to my vse it might vn-vsed stay
From hands of falsehood,in sure wards of trust ?
But thou,to whom my iewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort,now my greatest griefe,
Thou best of deerest,and mine onely care,
Art left the prey of euery vulgar theefe.
Thee haue I not lockt vp in any chest,
Saue where thou art not,though I feele thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my brest,
From whence at pleasure thou maist come and part,
  And euen thence thou wilt be stolne I feare,
  For truth prooues theeuish for a prize so deare.
 
                        49
AGainst that time ( if euer that time come )
When I shall see thee frowne on my defects,
When as thy loue hath cast his vtmost summe,
Cauld to that audite by aduis'd respects,
Against that time when thou shalt strangely passe,
And scarcely greete me with that sunne thine eye,
When loue conuerted from the thing it was
Shall reasons finde of setled grauitie.
Against that time do I insconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desart,
And this my hand,against my selfe vpreare,
To guard the lawfull reasons on thy part,
  To leaue poore me,thou hast the strengh of lawes,
  Since why to loue,I can alledge no cause.
 
                   50
HOw heauie doe I iourney on the way,
When what I seeke (my wearie trauels end)
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say
Thus farre the miles are measurde from thy friend.
The beast that beares me,tired with my woe,
Plods duly on,to beare that waight in me,
As if by some instinct the wretch did know
His rider lou'd not speed being made from thee:
The bloody spurre cannot prouoke him on,
That some-times anger thrusts into his hide,
Which heauily he answers with a grone,
More sharpe to me then spurring to his side,
 For that same grone doth put this in my mind,
 My greefe lies onward and my ioy behind.
 
                       5I
THus can my loue excuse the slow offence,
Of my dull bearer,when from thee I speed,
From where thou art,why shoulld I hast me thence,
Till I returne of posting is noe need.
O what excuse will my poore beast then find,
When swift extremity can seeme but slow,
Then should I spurre though mounted on the wind,
In winged speed no motion shall I know,
Then can no horse with my desire keepe pace,
Therefore desire( of perfects loue being made )
Shall naigh noe dull flesh in his fiery race,
But loue,for loue,thus shall excuse my iade,
  Since from thee going,he went wilfull slow,
  Towards thee ile run,and giue him leaue to goe.
 
                          52
SO am I as the rich whose blessed key,
Can bring him to his sweet vp-locked treasure,
The which he will not eu'ry hower suruay,
For blunting the fine point of seldome pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so sollemne and so rare,
Since sildom comming in the long yeare set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captaine Iewells in the carconet.
So is the time that keepes you as my chest,
Or as the ward-robe which the robe doth hide,
To make some speciall instant speciall blest,
By new vnfoulding his imprison'd pride.
  Blessed are you whose worthinesse giues skope,
  Being had to tryumph,being lackt to hope.
 
                     53
WHat is your substance,whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shaddowes on you tend?
Since euery one,hath euery one,one shade,
And you but one,can euery shaddow lend:
Describe <it>Adonis<it> and the counterfet,
Is poorely immitated after you,
On <it>Helens<it> cheeke all art of beautie set,
And you in <it>Grecian<it> tires are painted new:
Speake of the spring,and foyzon of the yeare,
The one doth shaddow of your beautie show,
The other as your bountie doth appeare,
And you in euery blessed shape we know.
  In all externall grace you haue some part,
  But you like none,none you for constant heart.
 
                   54
OH how much more doth beautie beautious seeme,
By that sweet ornament which truth doth giue,
The Rose lookes faire, but fairer we it deeme
For that sweet odor,which doth in it liue:
The Canker bloomes haue full as deepe a die,
As the perfumed tincture of the Roses,
Hang on such thornes,and play as wantonly,
When sommers breath their masked buds discloses:
But for their virtue only is their show,
They liue vnwoo'd, and vnrespected fade,
Die to themselues . Sweet Roses doe not so,
Of their sweet deathes, are sweetest odors made:
  And so of you,beautious and louely youth,
  When that shall vade,by verse distils your truth.
 
                    55
NOt marble, nor the guilded monument,
Of Princes shall out-liue this powrefull rime,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Then vnswept stone, besmeer'd with sluttish time.
When wastefull warre shall <it>Statues<it> ouer-turne,
And broiles roote out the worke of masonry,
Nor <it>Mars<it> his sword, nor warres quick fire shall burne:
The liuing record of your memory.
Gainst death,and all obliuious emnity
Shall you pace forth, your praise shall stil finde roome,
Euen in the eyes of all posterity
That weare this world out to the ending doome.
  So til the iudgement that your selfe arise,
  You liue in this,and dwell in louers eies.
 
                         56
Sweet loue renew thy force, be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be then apetite,
Which but too daie by feeding is alaied,
To morrow sharpned in his former might.
So loue be thou,although too daie thou fill
Thy hungrie eies,euen till they winck with fulnesse,
Too morrow see againe,and doe not kill
The spirit of Loue,with a perpetual dulnesse:
Let this sad <it>Intrim<it> like the Ocean be
Which parts the shore,where two contracted new,
Come daily to the banckes,that when they see:
Returne of loue,more blest may be the uiew.
   As cal it Winter,which being ful of care,
   Makes So[m]mers welcome,thrice more wish'd,more rare:
 
                       57
BEing your slaue what should I doe but tend,
Vpon the houres,and times of your desire?
I haue no precious time at al to spend;
Nor seruices to doe til you require.
Nor dare I chide the world without end houre,
Whilst I(my soueraine)watch the clock for you,
Nor thinke the bitternesse of absence sowre,
When you haue bid your seruant once adieue.
Nor dare I question with my iealious thought,
Where you may be,or your affaires suppose,
But like a sad slaue stay and thinke of nought
Saue where you are , how happy you make those.
  So true a foole is loue,that in your Will,
  (Though you doe any thing)he thinkes no ill.
 
                     58
THat god forbid,that made me first your slaue,
I should in thought controule your times of pleasure,
Or at your hand th'account of houres to craue,
Being your vassail bound to staie your leisure.
Oh let me suffer(being at your beck)
Th'imprison'd absence of your libertie,
And patience,tame to sufferance bide each check,
Without accusing you of iniury.
Be where you list,your charter is so strong,
That you your selfe may priuiledge your time
To what you will,to you it doth belong,
Your selfe to pardon of selfe-doing crime.
 I am to waite,though waiting so be hell,
 Not blame your pleasure be it ill or well.
 
                      59
IF their bee nothing new,but that which is,
Hath beene before , how are our braines beguild,
Which laboring for inuention beare amisse
The second burthen of a former child ?
Oh that record could with a back-ward looke,
Euen of fiue hundreth courses of the Sunne,
Show me your image in some antique booke,
Since minde at first in carrecter was done.
That I might see what the old world could say,
To this composed wonder of your frame,
Whether we are mended,or where better they,
Or whether reuolution be the same.
  Oh sure I am the wits of former daies,
  To subiects worse haue giuen admiring praise.
 
                        60
LIke as the waues make towards the pibled shore,
So do our minuites hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toile all forwards do contend.
Natiuity once in the maine of light.
Crawles to maturity,wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses gainst his glory fight,
And time that gaue,doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfixe the flourish set on youth,
And delues the paralels in beauties brow,
Feedes on the rarities of natures truth,
And nothing stands but for his sieth to mow.
  And yet to times in hope,my verse shall stand
  Praising thy worth,despight his cruell hand.
 
                             6I
IS it thy wil,thy Image should keepe open
My heauy eielids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadowes like to thee do mocke my sight?
Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
So farre from home into my deeds to prye,
To find out shames and idle houres in me,
The skope and tenure of thy Iealousie?
O no,thy loue though much,is not so great,
It is my loue that keepes mine eie awake,
Mine owne true loue that doth my rest defeat,
To plaie the watch-man euer for thy sake.
  For thee watch I,whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
  From me farre of , with others all too neere.
 
                        62
Sinne of selfe-loue possesseth al mine eie,
And all my soule,and al my euery part;
And for this sinne there is no remedie,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Me thinkes no face so gratious is as mine,
No shape so true,no truth of such account,
And for my selfe mine owne worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glasse shewes me my selfe indeed
Beated and chopt with tand antiquitie,
Mine owne selfe loue quite contrary I read
Selfe,so selfe louing were iniquity,
   Tis thee(my selfe)that for my selfe I praise,
   Painting my age with beauty of thy daies.
 
                         63
AGainst my loue shall be as I am now
With times iniurious hand crusht and ore-worne,
When houres haue dreind his blood and fild his brow
With lines and wrincles,when his youthfull morne
Hath trauaild on to Ages steepie night,
And all those beauties whereof now he's King
Are vanishing,or vanisht out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his Spring.
For such a time do I now fortifie
Against confounding Ages cruell knife,
That he shall neuer cut from memory
My sweet loues beauty,though my louers life.
  His beautie shall in these blacke lines be seene,
  And they shall liue , and he in them still greene.
 
                  64
WHen I haue seene by times fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworne buried age,
When sometime loftie towers I see downe rased,
And brasse eternall slaue to mortall rage.
When I haue seene the hungry Ocean gaine
Aduantage on the Kingdome of the shoare,
And the firme soile win of the watry maine,
Increasing store with losse,and losse with store.
When I haue seene such interchange of state,
Or state it selfe confounded, to decay,
Ruine hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my loue away.
  This thought is as a death which cannot choose
  But weepe to haue,that which it feares to loose.
 
                              65
SInce brasse,nor stone,nor earth,nor boundlesse sea,
But sad mortallity ore-swaies their power,
How with this rage shall beautie hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger then a flower?
O how shall summers hunny breath hold out,
Against the wrackfull siedge of battring dayes,
When rocks impregnable are not so stoute ,
Nor gates of steele so strong but time decayes?
O fearefull meditation,where alack,
Shall times best Iewel from times chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foote back,
Or who his spoile or beautie can forbid?
  O none,vnless this miracle haue might,
  That in black inck my loue may still shine bright.
 
                       66
TYr'd with all these for restfull death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar borne,
And needie Nothing trimd in iollitie,
And purest faith vnhappily forsworne,
And gilded honor shamefully misplast,
And maiden vertue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And arte made tung-tide by authoritie,
And Folly (Doctor-like) controulling skill,
And simple-Truth miscalde Simplicitie,
And captiue-good attending Captaine ill.
  Tyr'd with all these,from these would I be gone,
  Saue that to dye,I leaue my loue alone.
 
                     67
AH wherefore with infection should he liue,
And with his presence grace impietie,
That sinne by him aduantage should atchiue,
And lace it selfe with his societie ?
Why should false painting immitate his cheeke,
And steale dead seeing of his liuing hew?
Why should poore beautie indirectly seeke,
Roses of shaddow,since his Rose is true ?
Why should he liue,now nature banckrout is,
Beggerd of blood to blush through liuely vaines,
For she hath no exchecker now but his,
And proud of many,liues vpon his gaines?
  O him she stores,to show what welth she had,
  In daies long since,before these last so bad.
 
                       68
THus is his cheeke the map of daies out-worne,
When beauty liu'd and dy'ed as flowers do now,
Before these bastard signes of faire were borne,
Or durst inhabit on a liuing brow:
Before the goulden tresses of the dead,
The right of sepulchers,were shorne away,
To liue a scond life on second head,
Ere beauties dead fleece made another gay:
In him those holy antique howers are seene,
Without all ornament,it selfe and true,
Making no summer of an others greene,
Robbing no ould to dresse his beauty new,
  And him as for a map doth Nature store,
  To shew faulse Art what beauty was of yore.
 
                          69
THose parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view,
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend:
All toungs(the voice of soules)giue thee that end,
Vttring bare truth,euen so as foes Commend.
Their outward thus with outward praise is crownd,
But those same toungs that giue thee so thine owne,
In other accents doe this praise confound
By seeing farther then the eye hath showne.
They looke into the beauty of thy mind,
And that in guesse they measure by thy deeds,
Then churls their thoughts(although their eies were kind)
To thy faire flower ad the rancke smell of weeds,
  But why thy odor matcheth not thy show,
  The solye is this,that thou doost common grow.
 
                          70
THat thou are blam'd shall not be thy defect,
For slanders marke was euer yet the faire,
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A Crow that flies in heauens sweetest ayre.
So thou be good,slander doth but approue,
Their worth the greater beeing woo'd of time,
For Canker vice the sweetest buds doth loue,
And thou present'st a pure vnstained prime.
Thou hast past by the ambush of young daies,
Either not assayld,or victor beeing charg'd,
Yet this thy praise cannot be soe thy praise,
To tye vp enuy,euermore inlarged,
  If some suspect of ill maskt not thy show,
  Then thou alone kingdomes of hearts shouldst owe.