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Sonnets

TO. THE. ONUE BEGETTER OF.

. .

THESE. INSVING. SONNETS. -t%

MT V. H. ALL.HAPPINESSE.
ANI) THAT. ETERNITIE.
.
.-6 ;-I-17
PROMISED.
BY.
OVR EERLIVINi
. . POE 1
WISH ETH
THE .WELLWISHING.
ADVENTVRER IN. .

SETTING.
FoRTH
T. T

[11
from fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beautys rose might never die,
But as the riper shoctld by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou. contracted to thine own bright eves,
feedst thy lights name with self-substantial fttcl,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaud spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender chorl, makst waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the worlds due, by the grave and thee.
Vthcn forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy heautys held,
Thy youths proud livery, so gazd on now,
\Vill he a totterd weed of small worth held:
Then being askd, where alt thy beauty lies,
\\here all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thinc own deepsttnken eyes
Vere an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
I low much more pratse dcservd thy beautys use,
to If thou cottldst answer, This fatr child of mine 10
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,
Proving his beatttv by sttccession thine.
This were to he tiew made when thoti art old,
And see thy blood warm when thott feelst it cold.

Words enclosed in square brackets in the text above are e,,tendations tf

the copy-text. The Textual Notes record in every instance the reading of
the Copy-text and the earliest authority
for the emendation here adopted. t.ook in thy glass and tell the face thou viewcst,
Dedication. T.T. These are the initials of Thomas Thorpe, publisher Now is the ttme that face shottld form another,
af the 1609 quarto. On Mr. W. H., see the introduction.
Whose fresh repair if now thou not rcncwest,
II. creatures: created things of every kind,
Progeny.
increase: fruit, Thou dost beguile the world, unbiess some mother.
4. tender: youthful.
5. Contracted: betrothed or married (perhaps with additional sense
of restricted). 6. self-substantial: of your own substance.
19. only: unique, peerless, 2.3. proud livery: gorgeous dress.
gaudy: bright, sparkling, like a gaud 4. totterd weed: tattered garment. 6. lusty: fresh and vigorous.
(jewel).
8. nil-eating shame: shameful gluttony. Cf. Sonnet 1.13-14. thrift
1. Content: (I) what is contained. i e. potential fatherhood; (2) con
less praise: (1) unprofitable praise; (2) praise for thriftlessness.
tentment.
12. tender chorl: youthful churlan oxymoron, since churls (ill- 9. use: (I) employment: (2) investment, lending for interest.
Ii. sum excuse: add up my account and justify me in my age.
. - -

natured and niggardly men) are typically represented as old. The

12. Prosing thine: prosing that his beauty is technically and
. , .
south (as the line goes on to say) commits extravagance, not by the
legally yours because he derised it from you.
Prodigality characteristic of young men, but by hoarding.
14. the worlds due: what you owe the world (increase, offspring).
3.3. repair: condition.
by .
thee: (eaten) by you, in refusing to marry and beget, and by 4. beguile: cheat. unbless some mother: deprive some woman of
the grave, in consuming you and your potential offspring.
the blessing of motherhood. 1H43
 Sorniets For where is she so fair whose uneard 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 mothers glass, and she in thee
Calls 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 remembred not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.
4 XVhich happies those that pay the willing loan;
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beautys legacy?
Natures bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she tends to those are free:
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
ProHttess usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traflc with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive,
Then how when Nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unusd beauty must be tombd with thee,
\Vhich used lives th executor to be.
a But flowers distilld, though they with winter meet
Leese but their show, their substance still lives
sweet.
6
20
Then let not winters ragged hand deface
In thee thy summer ere thou be distilld:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beautys treasure ere it be self-killd.
That use is not forbidden usury, 5
Thats for thyself to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier be it ten for one;
Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigurd thee, 10
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
5 Leaving thee living in posterity?
Be not self-willd, for thou art much too fair
To he deaths conquest and make worms thine heir.
7
10
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,
And having ctimbd the steep-up heavenly hill, 5

5 Resembling strong youth in his middle age,

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:
for never-resting time leads summer on
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage:
But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,
Like feeble age he reeleth from the day, 10
The eyes (fore duteous) now converted arc
a From his low tract and look another way:

I
To hideous winter and confounds him there,
Sap checkd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty ocrsnowd and bareness every where:
Then were not summers distillation left
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass, 10
Beautys effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was.
5. uneard: unploughed. The sexual metaphor is very common.
6. husbandry: (I) cultivation; (2) marital duties.
7. so fond will: so foolish that he will. 8. Of: because of.
9. glass: mirror. 10. prime: springtime, youth.
II. windows. age: i.e. children, who in his old age will permit him
. .
So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon,
Unlookd on diest unless thou get a son.
8
Music to hear, why hearst thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy,
Why lovst thou that which thou receivst not gladly,
Or else receivst with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds

a view of what he was in youth.

13. remembred . . . be: i.e. to be forgotten. 14. Leese: lose.
4.1. spend: use up. 6.1. ragged: rough. 3. treasure: enrich.
2. thy beautys legacy: your inheritance of beauty. 5. use: tending money at interest.
pay... loan: wtllmgly repay the
Oats.
4. frank: generous. are free: who are bountiful. 6. happies: makes happy.
5. abuse: misuse. 7. use: have the use of; but there is an implicit 10. refigurd: reportrayed, copied.
contrast with another common meaning, lay out at interest, invest 13. self-willd: (I) obstinate; (2) leaving no inheritance X
profitably (as in unusd and used in lines 13, 14), in terms of which yourself.
the youths use is, paradoxically, non-use.
8. live: (I) gain a livelihood; (2) remain alive (through offspring). 7.1. gracious: kingly. 2. under: i.e. earthly.
9. traffic: commerce, dealings. 10. deceive: cheat. 4. Serving: worshipping (cf. divine service).
14. lives: i.e. would survive in the person of your child. 5. steep-up: high and precipitous.
9. car: chariot (of the sun-god).
5.1. gentle work: (I) kindly operation; (2) refined workmanship. It. converted: turned. 12. tract: track, path.
2. gaze: object of gazing. 13. thyself. , noon: passing the zenith of your beauty.
.

4. unfair: unbeautify. fairly: in beauty. 14. get: beget.

6. confounds: destroys.
sadly: gfi
9. summers distillation: the distillation of summer flowers, perfumes. 8.1. Music to bear: you whose voice is music. you.,
II. effect: product. with: along with. were bereft: would lelost. without showing pleasure. 4. thine annoy: what bores
eslr0y
1844 12. Nor. ..no: (leaving behind) neither beauty nor any. 6. unions: i.e. harmonious blending. 7. contound5

In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; 10
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.
9 Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish:
Is it for fear to wet a widows eye
That thou consumst thyself in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife,
The 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 childrens eyes, her husbands shape in mind.
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it, 10
But beautys waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unusd, the user so destroys it:
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murdrous shame commits.
10
for shame deny that thou bearst love to any,
Who for thyself art so unprovident.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art bclovd of many,
But that thou none lovst is most evident;
For thou art so possessd with murdrous hate,
That gainst thyself thou stickst not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
0, change thy thought, that I may change my mind!
Shall hate be fairer lodgd than gentle love? 10
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.
11
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growst,
In one of thine, from that which thou departest,
8. singleness: (1) solo performance; (2) unmarried state, parts.
bear: (I) harmony in which you should bear a part; (2) roles of
husband and father that you should be playing.
910. one. . ordering. Referring to the double strings of the lute,
. 7. minded so: of your mind (to remain childless).
one of which vibrates sympathetically when the other is plucked.
12. note: music or harmony, not in unison.
13. Whose: i.e. the strings, speechless: wordless.
14. Thou. . none. Alluding to the proverbial One is no number.
. 12. in bounty: i.e. by being bountiful.
9.4. makeless: mateless, widowed. 5. still: always.
7. private: individual. 9. Look what: whatever.
10. his: its, 11. beautys waste: wasted beauty.
12. the user: i.e. the one who had it to use.
14. murdrous shame: shameful act of murder.
10.6. stickst not: dost not hesitate, conspire: have evil designs.
8. repair: keep in repair. 9. thought: intention, mind: opinion
(of you). II. presence: appearance.
11.2. one of thine: a child of yours. from that which: in that from
Which
I
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bcstowst Soiinets
Thou mayst call thine, when thou from youth con
vertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase, a
Without this, folly, age, and cold decay.
If all were minded so, the times should cease,
And threcscore year would make the world away.
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
10
Look whom she best endowd she gave the more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish.
She carvd thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
12
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] silverd oer with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves, a
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summers green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go, 10
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing gainst Times scythe can make defense
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
13
0 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.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease a
Find no dctertnination; then you were
[Yourself] again after yourselfs decease,
Vhen your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honor might uphold 10
Against the stormy gusts of winters day
And barren rage of deaths eternal cold?
0, none but unthrifts: dear my love, you know
You had a father, let your son say so.
3. youngly: in youth. 4. convertest: changest.
times: i.e. suc
cessive generations of men. 9. store: a stock to draw upon.
10. Harsh: displeasing to the eye. featureless: ill-favored, ugly.
rude: crudely formed. ii. Look whom: whomever.
14. copy: original (as in printers copy).
12.2. brave: splendid, beautiful. 4. sable: black, dark.
8. bier: i.e. harvest cart. 9. question make: discuss with myself.
10. wastes of time: things wasted or destroyed by time.
14. breed: offspring, brave: defy.
13.1. yourself: i.e. your own, not subject to time and change.
3. Against: in expectation of.
6. determination: end (legal term).
10, husbandry: prudent management (with obvious pun).
11. winters day: time when winter reigns.
12. barren rage: ravaging which produces barrenness. 1845
 14
Sonnets
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;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, 0
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 eves my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art to
As truth and beauty shall togeth er thrive
If from thyself to stote thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
Thy end is trttths and beautys doom and date.
15
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment;
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checkd 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
Sets 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 fc)r love of you,
As he takes from you, I ingraft ou new.
16
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
I Make war upon this blocdy tyrant Time?
And fortify yourself in your decay
XVith means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden garden s, yet unset,
a
With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers.
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repair
Which this times pencil, or my pupil pen
14.1. judgment pluck: draw conclusions.
2. have astronomy: understand astrology.
5. minutes: i.e. short periods of time.
8. oft predict: frequent signs and omens.
JOIl. read. . As: gather such knowledge as that.
.
12. store: plenty (progeny). convert: change.
14. date: limit of duration.
4. secret: occult.
15.2. Holds: stays, as in hoIi sill!.
6. Cheered and checkd: urged forward and held back.
7. Vaunt: exult, sap: vigor.
8. brave: splendid. out of memory: until forgotten (that it ever
was brave). 9. conceit: conception, idea.
with: together with.
ii. debateth: fights.
12. sullied: soiled, blackened.
in you
14. ingralt you new: renew you by grafting, implant beauty
again (by my verse).
16.4 blessed: productive of happy results, effectual.
5. on the top: at the height. 6. unset: unpianted.
8. counterfeit: portrait.
the lines of
9. lines of life: living lines (of offspring) in contrast to
1846 a painter or poet. 10. pencil: paint brush,
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.
17
Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were filld with your most high deserts?
Though vet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half 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 heavenly touches neer touchd earthly faces.
So should nw papers (yellowed with their age)
Be scornd, like old men of less truth than tongue, 10
And your trtte rights be termd a poets rage,
And stretched metre of an antique sono:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it and in my rhyme,
-
1$
Shall I compare thee to a sumLilers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shaie the darling buds of May,
And summers lease hath all too short a date;
10
Sometime too hot the eve of heaven shines, 5
And often is his gold crnplexion dimmd,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chanc or natures changing course untrimmd:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou otvst, 10
Nor shall Death brag thott wandrcst in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growst.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
19
Devouring lime, blunt thou the lions paws
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tigers [jawsi,
And burn the long-livd phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleetst,
And do what ccr thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets:
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime,
brow,
0, carve not with thy hours nw loves fair
11. fair: beauty.
17.4. parts: admirable qualities.
6. numbers: verses. 8. touches: brush strokes.
inspit200 a
II. true rights: due praise, rage: furor poeticIuS,
exaggeration
.ry, Sonnet 100.3. 12. stretched metre: poetic
18.1. a summers day: i.e. the summer season.
2. temperate: of even temperaturr.
4. lease: allotted time, date: duration.
7. fair. fair: beautiful thing
. .
. beauty.
. .
8. untrimmd: divested of beauty. JO. owst: ownest.
upon time.
12. to growst: you become inseparably engrafted
. . .
by other CL-
19.4. phoenix. Reputed to live five hundred for, her blood: 1.
/
a thousand) years, and then to die in flames,
in
the full vigor of life (a hunting term).
Nor draw no lines therc with thine antiquc pen; io
Him in thy course untainted do allow,
for beautys pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
20
A womans face with Natures own hand painted
I-last thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A womans gentle heart but not acquainted
tVtth shifting change as is false womens fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; 6
A man in hue all hues in his controlling.
\Vhich steals mens eves and womens souls arnazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till Nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting. to
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prickd thee out for womens pleasure,
.\lit;e be thy love, and thy loves use their treasure.
21
So is it nor with me as with that Muse
Stirrd by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heaven itself for ornament cloth use,
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,
Making a couplement of proud compare
\Vith stin and moon, with earth and seas rich gems,
With pril first-horn flowers, and all things rare
That heavens air in this huge rondure hems.
0, let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe mc, my love is as fair 10
As any mothers child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fixd in heavens air:
Let them say more that like of hearsay well,
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou arc of one date,
tO. antique: (1) old; (2) antic, drawing fantastic lines,
Ii. untainted: (I) undefiled; (2) untouched by a weapon (a term from
tilting, presumably suggested by in thy course). allow: allow to
remain.
20.1. with. ,hand: i.e. without any aid from cosmetics (with = by).
. Il. Bearing: because I bear,
2. master mistress: a paradox which the sonnet elaborates. Some
editors join the txvo words with a hyphen. passion: (I) strong
feeling, love; (2) love poem. 5. rolling: roving.
7. hue: shape, form. The line may be corrupt; various editors have
emended A nan in hue to A womans hue or .4 ,naide,j jut: his
then = its, all
. .controlling: i.e. surpassing all other forms.
. forget: forget how.
10. a-doting: in love (with additional suggestion of folly or ir
rationality). II. defeated: deprived. 12. nathing: of no value.
13. prickd thee out: marked you Out (with sexual quibble).
14. use: (I) physical enjoyment; (2) interest, as contrasted with
capital.
21.1. Muse: i.e. poet. 2. painted: dependent on cosmetics.
4. every .. rehearse: compares his lady with every beautiful thing.
5. compare: comparison. 8. rondure: sphere.
13. hearsay: conventional or trite expressions.
14. that purpose not: who (= since I) do not intend.
22.2. of one date: the same age.
But when in thee times furrows I behold, ,Soniieis
Then look I death my days should expiate.
for all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Whtch in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:
How can I then be elder than thou art?
0, therefore, love, he of thyself so wary
As I, not for myself, but for thee will, 10
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 gavst me thine not to give back again.
23
As an unperfect actor on the stage,
\ho with his fear is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage.
s\hose strengths abundance weakens his own heart,
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say 5
The perfect ceremony of loves [rite],
And in mine own loves strength seem to decay,
Ocrchargd with burthen of mine own loves might.
0, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of nw speaking breast, to
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more expressd.
0, learn to read what silent love hath writ
To hear with eyes belongs to loves fine wit.
24
xIinc eye hath playcI the painter and hath [srclld]
Thy bc-autys form in table of my heart;
Mv body is the frame wherein tis held,
And perspective it is best painters art.
For through the painter must you see his skill, 5
To find where your true image picturd lies,
\Vhich in my bosoms shop is hanging still,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.
Now see what good turns eves for eyes have done:
Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and rhine for me 10
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.
4. expiate: end.
10. will: i.e. will be wary of myself, will lake care of myself.
chary: carefully.
13. Presume not on: do not count on getting back.
23.1. unperfect: not completely knowing his part.
2. is.. part: is unable to speak his lines.
.
5. for. .trust: fearing to trust myself lacking self-confidence.
.
6. rite: ritual. 7. decay: grow weak.
9. books. Citing Sonnet 85. many editors prefer Sewells emendation
looks, If books is the correct reading, it may mean these sonnets, or,
if the addressee is Southampton, the two poems Venus anti .4donis
and Lucrece.
10. prcsagers: presenters, as in the dumb show of a play.
12. more exprcssd: expressed more often or more fully.
24.1. steltd: placed, fixed.
2. table: panel on which a picture is painted.
4. perspective: either a glass prism through which the painter f = the
eye, line I) looks at the object, or the technique of composition to
suggest distance: perhaps both. 8. his: its, glazed: glassed in.
13. want: lack, grace: beautify. I 1(47
 Sotitiets 25
Let those who are in favor with their stats
Of public honor and proud titles boast,
Whilst I whom fortune of such triumph bars
Unlookd for joy in that I honor most.
Great princes favorites their fair leaves spread 5 And each (though enemies to [eithers] reign)
But as the marigold at the suns eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for [fight],
After a thousand victories once foild, to
Is from the book of honor rased quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toild.
Then happy I that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove, nor be removed.
26
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Thy merit bath my ditty strongly knit,
To thee I send this tvrltten ambassage
To witness duty, not to show my wit;
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine a And look upon myself and curse my fate,
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it,
But that I hope some good conceit of thinc
In thy souls thought (all naked) will bestow it;
Till whatsoever star that guides my moving
Points on me graciously with fair aspect, to
And puts apparel on my tottered loving,
To shotv 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.
27
I 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 bodys works expired;
For then ow thoughts (from far where I abide) 5 Then can I drown an eve (unusd to flow)
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see;
Save that my souls imaginary sight
Presents [thy] shadow to my sightless view, Jo
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.
25.4 Unlookd For: unexpectedly, that: what. 6. But: oniy.
fight. Some editors retain the reading
9. painful: toiling with pain,
of the 1609 quarto, worth, and in line II emend quite to forth.
12. rest: i.e. earlier victories.
II. rased: erased, blotted out.
26.3. ambassage: message. 4. wit: i.e. poetic ability.
7. good conceit: fa1orabte opinion.
8. all naked. Continues bare, line 6. hestow: provide hospitality
for, lodge. II. tottered: tattered.
12. respect: consideration. 14. prove: test, try.
27.1. toil: toilsome journeying (cf. Sonnet 28, 78).
4. To work: to cause to work. 6. Intend: set Out UpOfl.
10. shadow: image.
9. imaginary: imagining.
1848 11. ghastly: terrifying.
28
How can I then return in happy plight
That am debarrd the benefit of rest?
When days oppression is not easd by night,
But day by night and night by day oppressd;
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,
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven;
So flatter I the swart-complexiond night,
When sparkling stars ttvire not thou [gildst] th even:
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make griefs length seem
stronger.
29
When in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes
I all alone bcweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, s
featurd like him, like him with friends posscssd,
Desiring this mans art, and that mans scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state 10
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heavens gate,
for thy sweet love remembred such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
30
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 times waste;
for precious friends hid in deaths dateless ntght,
And weep afresh loves long since cancelld woe,
And moan th expense of many a vanishd sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
10
And heavily from woe to woe tell oer
28.1. plight: state. 6. shake hands: seal a compact.
7. complain: make me complain.
II. flatter: gratify. swart: black, dark.
12. When: i.e. by telling him that when, twice: peep.
evening.
29.1. disgrace: disfavor. 1k
I C
like him, like him: like another,
.
6. Featurd: i.e. handsome,
a third.
scope: intellectual range.
7. art: literary skill (7).
10. state: i.e. mental or emotional state, mood.
12. sullen: (I) dull, heavy; (2) sombre,
10 he seflsC
14. state. The word here adds to its meaning in line
throne.
30.3. sigh: bemoan.
life.
4. my . waste: the destruction of the best part of my
. .
6. dateless: without termination.
7. cancelld: paid in full (with tears). 8. expense: loss.
9. foregone: past. 10. heavily: sadly, tell: count.
 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 restord, and sorrows end.
31
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
Which I by lacking have supposed dead,
And there reigns love and all loves loving parts,
And all those friends which thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious tear
Hath dear religious Jove stoln from mine eye
As interest of the dead, which now appear
But things removd that hidden in [thee] lie!
Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung 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 lovd I view in thee,
And thou (all they) hast all the all of me.
32
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
TItese poor rude lines of thy deceased lover,
Compare them with the bettring of the time,
And though they be outstrippd by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.
0 then voutsafe me but this loving thought:
Had my friends 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 Ill read, his for his love.
33
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 alcumy;
Anon 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:
31.1. endeared: enriched.
5. obsequious: dutiful in performing funeral rites.
6. religious: dutiful, devoted.
7. interest: right,
which: who. 8. removd: absent.
10. trophies: memorials, lovers: friends (a common Elizabethan
usage; cf. Sonnet 32.4).
11. parts: shares.
14. all they: comprising all of them.
32.1. my well-contented day: i.e. the day of my death, at which
shall not repine.
5. bettring. .time: i.e. improved writing of that day.
.
7. Reserve: preserve, treasure up. rhyme: i.e. poetic excellence.
8. happier: more gifted.
9. voutsafe: vouchsafe.
12. equipage: equipment and dress (a common expression for literary
production).
33.4. alcumy: alchemy. 5. Anon: soon, basest: darkest.
6. rack: vaporous mass or streamer.
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
Sonnets
1eVith all-triumphant splendor on my brow,
But out, alack, he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath maskd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth:
Suns of the world may stain, when heavens sun
staineth.
34
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
.3 And make mc travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds oertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravry in their rotten smoke?
Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break, .5
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
ic 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,
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss,
20
Th offenders sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offenses [cross].
Ah, but those tears are pearl which thy love sheeds,
And they arc rich, and ransom all ill deeds.
35
No more be grievd at that which thou hast done:
a Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
it
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing [thy] sins more than [thy] sins are; J
for to thy sensual fault I bring in sense
Thy adverse party is thy advocate
And gainst myself a lawful plea commence.
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessary needs must be
I
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from mc.
36
Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one:
So shall those blots that do with mc remain,
Vt7ithout thy help, by mc be borne alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
II. out, alack: alas. 12. region: of the upper air.
14. stain: lose brightness.
34.3. base: dark.
4. bravry: splendor.
rotten smoke: foul vapors.
9. shame: remorse. 12. cross: affliction. 13. sheeds: sheds.
I 35.3. stain: dim. 4. canker: rose worm.
6. Authorizing: (ustifying. compare: comparisons (such as those
in lines 24).
7. Myself. . amiss: i.e. spreading excuses over your trespass in an
.
attempt to cure it and corrupting myself by doing so.
8. Excusing. are: i.e. worse in excusing your sins than you are in
. .
sinning. 9. sense: reason. 14. sourly: with bitter effect.
36.5. respect: focus of attention.
6. separable spite: spiteful separation.
1849
,Sotioit hich though it alter iiot loves sole effect.
Yet doth it steal sweet hours fron) loves delight.
I may not evermore aeknt)w ledge thee,
I ,est my bewailed gut It should do thee shame,
Not thou \ ith p)l Ic kindness honor n ie.
Unless thou take that honor ftoni thy name.
hut do not so, I love thee iii such Sort,
.\s thou heing nu ne, n line 5 th\ good report.
As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his aCtive child do deeds o youth,
So I. made lame liv lortiines dearest spite.
1 ake all my coinlort o thy worth and truth.
lot whether beauty, birth, or wealth. or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Intitled in [thvl parts do crow ned sir,
I make my love iogr:tfted to this store:
So then I an) not I ame, poc it, nor des pi sd,
hilst that this shadow doth such substance ott e,
I hat I in thy abundance ant sullied,
And by a part of all thy glory live.
look o, hat is best, that best I wish iii thee:
ibis wish I have, then ten tines happ me
I low can my i lose scant stth1eet to invent
While thou dost breathe, that pourst into my erse
Ihine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
f), give thyself the thanks if aught in mc
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight,
[or whos so dunili that cannot write to thee.
\lien thou thyself dost give Invention light?
Be thou the tenth s I use, ten times more iii worth
1 ban those old n inc which Hisine rs I lvi eate,
- \nd he that calls on thee, let him lit I ng Ii wth
Eternal numbers to out1 ye long date.
If my slight .\Iuse dci please these curious days.
1 he pain be untie, but rhine shall be the praise.
C)
0, how thy worth with ni:inners ma I sing,
iti hen thou art all the lietre r part of me?
7. sole: (I) unique: (2) ereai ing onelieSs.
9. not eserotore: ncset liencetotih acknossledge: itdicaie that I
knos. 14 As. thai. The final couplet also ends Sonnet 96.
373. made lame: i.e. disabled, dearest spite: direst Ifl)ury.
4. comfort delight, of: thorn, in. 5. ss it: intellect.
7, lot itied sit: right) ul ly enjoy first p lace among out good
...
qual es.
It. make . , to: engraO my lose upon.
.
riches. 13. Look s,hai: whaieser.
38.1. want insent : lick subject mauer Sir si rime,
. .
,
3. argument: theme, suhjvei.
4. paper: piece of n ruing, rehearse: recite.
5. in me: of nlv writing. 6. stand against: erect.
7, dumb: destitute of ni,ctier.
date: duration.
12. numbers: verses,
13. curious: critical. 14. pain: elton, labor.
39.1. manners: proper modesty.
I R,O
X\hat cm mine own pr:tise to mine own self brinir
And what ist htit none own when I praise thee:
Even tot tins, let us divided live,
it) And our clear love lose name of single one.
1 hat by this separation I may give
Fhat due to thee which thou dcservst alone,
0 ahsenee, w liar :t torment wouldst thou prove,
\\ere it not thy sottr leisure gave so eer leave
lo entertain tile time with thoughts of love,
Vhieh time and thoughts so so cerly dost deceive,
And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
By praising him here who dorh hence rernaitl
4))
a I ake all my loves, my lotte. yea, take them all,
\hat last thou then more than thou hadst before?
No hive. my love, that thoti mavst true love call,
\ll twine was thitie, bebire thou hadst this more.
then if for my love thou tiiv love receivest,
to I cannot lilatne thee for ntv love thou ttscst,
But yet he blamd, if thou this self dcceivesr
w Ilful taste of w h,tt thyself refusest.
I Cit C Itirgi cc t by rohb rs. gentle thief
Although thou steal thee all m povert;
And et love knows it isa greater grief
lo hear loves strong than hates known itijurv.
l.aseivious grace, in w Itotii all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites, vet we must not be foes.
41
a Ihose pretty svrongs that liberty commits
\ \ hen I am sontet i me a hsen t (rot n thy heart,
thy beauty and thy ears full well befits,
For still tetliptation follows where thou art.
eiitle thou :trt. and therefore to be w on,
in Beautecius thou art. therefore to be assailed;
And when a wonian woos, what wontans son
\\ill sourly leave her till Ishel have prevailed?
Av nie, btit vet thou niightst my seat forbear.
,\nd chide thy beauty and thy straying youth.
Vt hi) lead thee in their ritir even there
\here thou art fircd to break a to ofold truth:
I Jers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
lhtne 1w thy beauty Iteing f,tlse to mc.
5. fur: because of. II. entertain: occupy, sshtle assay. dust.
12. thoughts: i.e. tnctanchois thoughts (a comnion nieaningl
tine 9.
The subject is a supplied thea, standing for absence,
urai suh
editors emend to ii, rh Igood Elizabethan usage ss ith a p1
.
deceivc: beguile assay. 13. that: uere it not that. as
tO nrc heft
14. praising hint here: i.e. making him seem present
I utter his praises.
In stress)
usest: it for lose of nrc you receive my hose mntvrcOUtS
4l).56. if . . .
use her (c. has e
accumut,ilion Of I cannot blame omi because our) snu
store
55 itlm her: cf the noun use in Sonnet 20.14).
7, this sell: this one of sour seises, i.e. the poet. ir
ihysehl: your true 5&f.
.
8. n iBis,) taste: sevuat enjoy nrent.
at your best (?). 10. ott poverty: the little I possess.
2 knosso: open, undissemhled.
4. suites: injuries, outrages,
liberty : license, loose behas ion.
41. t . pretty: sport is e.
4. Still: cotrtinuousiy
mon0po.0 f
t. my seal: tIre place that belongs to me, i.e. tny
,
fidelity
rights. II. riot: Cs antonness. 12. truth: pledge oh
 42
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief
And yet it may be said I lovd her dearly;
That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:
Thou dost love her because thou knowst I love her,
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suffring my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my loves gain,
And losing her, my friend bath found that loss;
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross.
But heres the joy, my friend and I are one;
Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.
re?
43
5 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.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
10 How would thy shadows form form happy show 6
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day, 10
When in dead night [thy] fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see tilt I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee
me.
44
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.
10 No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removd 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,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
10
But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
g). d44t, I must attend times leisure with my moan,
9, ManY
aI subject). 42.7. abuse: wrong.
8. approve: test, experience sexually.
9. loves: mistresss,
ne here at 12. cross: affliction.
43.1. wink: close my eyes (in sleep).
2. unrespected: unconsidered, unnoticed.
4. dsrk]y bright: lighted though closed
(?)or
are. .directed: see clearly in the darkness. mysteriously lighted (?).
.
5. shadow: image. shadows: darkness.
6. thy shadows form: the
If, form that casts your shadow. The line
means What a gladdening sight your
14. me: to me. actual presence would make.
44.1. dull: heavy. 4. limits: regions,
9. thought, The first thought where: to where.
may mean melancholy (cf. Sonnet
39.12).
11. earth and water. Heavy in
comparison with the other two elements,
air and fire, wrought: fashioned, composed.
12. attend . , moan: wait,
. lamenting, until time has leisure to
Unite us.
Receiving [nought] by elements so slow
Sonnets
But heavy tears, badges of eithers woe.
45
The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with
thee, where ever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present-absent with sxvift motion slide.
For tvhen these quicker elements are gone 5
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppressd with melancholy;
Until lives composition be recured
By those swift messengers returnd from thee, 10
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 grotv sad.
46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal tvar,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight:
Mine eye my heart [thy] pictures sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie 5
(A closet never piercd with crystal eyes),
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him [thy] fair appearance lies.
To [cide] this title is impanelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart, 10
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eyes moiety and the dear hearts part
As thus: mine eyes due is [thy] outward part,
And my hearts right [thy] intvard love of heart.
47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:
When that mine eye is famishd for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With my loves picture then my eye doth feast, 5
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my hearts guest,
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part.
So either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away are present still with me,
10
for thou [not] farther than my thoughts canst move,
14. eithers: i.e. both earths and waters (since his tears are
heavy like
earth and wet like water).
45.1. slight: unsubstantial.
9. lives: lifes, composition: the proper balance of the four
elements in the humors, which was thought to produce
health.
recured: restored.
46.1. mortal: deadly.
2. conquest. sight: the right to look at your image.
. .
A real portrait
may be involved here, rather than the imaginary one of
Sonnet 24.
4. freedom: free enjoyment, privilege.
6. crystal: clear, penetrating. 9. dde: decide, award.
10. quest: inquest or jury. 12. moiety: share.
47.1. league is took: peace treaty is arranged. 10. still: always.
1851
 Son nets And I am still with them, and they with thee;
Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart to hearts and eves delight.
48
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!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are, 0
i\Iost worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou best of dearest, and mine only care,
Art left the pre of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lockd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art, 10
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
from whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part,
And even thence thou wilt be stoln, I fear,
for truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
49
Against that titne (if ever that time come)
V.hen I shall see thee frown on my defects,
Wien as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Calld to that audit by advisd respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet inc with that sun, thine eye,
When love converted from the thing it was
Shall reasons find of settled gravity
Against that time do I insconce me here
XVtthin the knowledge of mine own desert, 10
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part.
I To leave poor mc thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.
50
How heavy do I journey on the way,
XVhcn what I seek (my weary travels end)
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,
Thus far the miles arc mcasurd from thy friend.
48.1. took my way: started on my journey.
2. truest: most trustworthy.
4. wards: safes. Cf. wardrobe. 5. to: in comparison with.
6. worthy: precious. grief: cause of mental distress (because he is
being stolen).
absent and in danger of
7. mine only care: the only thing t care about.
8. vulgar: common.
9. chest: (I) cotTer; (2) breast. 12. part: depart.
14. truth: i.e. honesty itself, the antithesis of thievery.
49.1. Against: in preparation for.
3. When as: when, cast. . sum: made its final reckoning.
4. advisd respects: thoughtful consideration,
5. strangely: like a stranger.
8. of settled gravity: of sufficient weight (to justify the change [7]
or for dignified reserve [?]). 9. insconce: shelter.
10. desert: i.e. lack of desert.
it. this uprear. As if to swear as a witness.
. . .
12. guard ...part: i.e. testify that your reasons are lawful.
allege no cause: plead
14. why to love: why you should love me.
no lawful reason.
50.1. heavy: sad(ly).
bed.
1852 3. ease.. . repose: accommodation (at an inn). . .
The 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 knov
His rider lovd not speed, being made from thee.
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,
That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, 10
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:
Mv grief lies onward and my joy behind.
51
Thus can my love excuse the slow offense
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.
0, what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow?
Then should I spur though mounted on the tvind,
In winged speed no motion shall I know,
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;
Therefore desire (of [perfectst] love being made) to
Shall neigh (no dull flesh) in his fiery race,
Bitt love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade:
Since from thee going he went willful-slow,
Towards thee Ill run, and give him leave to go.
52
So am I as the rich whose blessed key
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,
The which he will not evry hour survey,
for blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, S
Since seldom coming, in the long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
So is the time that keeps you as my chest,
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, 10
To make some special instant special blest,
By new unfolding his itnprisond pride.
Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope,
Being had, to triumph, being lackd, to hope.
53
What is your substance, whereof arc you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
6. dulty: slowly, wright: i.e. of grief.
8. being made. Modifies speed. from: away from.
4. posting: riding fast.
51.1. slow offense: offense ofslowness.
6. nwitt extremity: extreme of swiftness. to me I
8. In . know: even the speed of flight would seem
. .
standing still. 14. go: walk.
52.1. blessed: fortunate, producing happiness.
4. for blunting: lest he blunt, seldom: infrequent.
carcanet..
8. captain: principal.
5. solemn: ceremonious.
lace. 12. his: its, pride: splendor.
are present. tO
retolcC
1314. gives . hope: enables me, when you
. .
absent, to hope for your return.
and when you are
3. shade: shadow.
53.2. tend: attend.

And you, but one, can every shadow lend:
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helens cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new;
Speak of the spring and foison of the year,
The 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.
54
O 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.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly,
X\hen summers breath their masked buds discloses;
But for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwood, and unrcspected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so,
Of their sweet deaths are stveetest odors made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall vade, by verse distills your truth.
55
Not marble nor the gilded [monuments]
Of princes shall outlive this powrful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeard with sluttish titne.
When wasteful war shall statues Overturn, 5
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor wars quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,
Even in the eyes of all posterity 11
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.
4. can. . lend: can cast all manner of shadows (here used in the
.
Sense of shadowy images or reflections, such as those
specified
in lines 511). 5. counterfeit: portrait (in words).
0. tires: attire.
9. bison: season of plenty, harvest.
54.2. truth: (I) constancy: (2) essence, reality.
5. canker.bloo,, wild roses, regarded as weeds.
6. tIncture: dye, color.
7. wantonly: sportively.
8. discloses: opens.
9. for: because,
only . show: consists only of their appearance.
. .
10. unrespected disregarded.
13. lovely: lovable, in contrast to line 10.
N ,Vhen. . .troth: when your external
beauty fades, verse will
distill and preserve your essential beauty. (Many
editors emend by
to my.)
55.3, these Contents: what is
contained in these sonnets.
4. Than. .
time: than in a memorial stone, dulled by time, which
.
like a lazy housemaid (sluuish)
has not swept it.
5. wasteful: laying waste,
devastating.
6, broils: tumults, uprisings.
7. Nor: neither.
Mam his sword: Mars sword [shall destroy).
9. all-oblivious enmity:
oblivion, hostile to everything.
13. tUdgment that: Judgment
Day, when.
-
56 Soiiiivts
Sweet love, renew thy force, be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,
Which but to-day by feeding is allayd,
To-morrow sharpned in his former might.
So, love, be thou: although to-day thou fill 5
Thy hungry eyes even till they wink tvith fullness,
To-morrow see again, and do not kill
The spirit of love with a perpetual dullness:
Let this sad intritn like the ocean be
Which parts the shore, where two contracted new io
Come daily to the banks, that when they see
Return of love, more blest may be the view;
As call it winter, which being full of care,
Makes summers welcotne thrice more tvishd, more
rare.
57
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.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour, s
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 jealious thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, 10
But like a sad slave stay- and think of nought
Save where you are how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love that in your will
(Though you do any thing) he thinks no ill.
58
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 hound to stay your leisure.
0, let me suffer (being at your beck) 0
Th imprisond absence of your liberty,
And patience, tame to sctPferance, bide each check,
Without accusing you of injury.
Be where you list, your charter is so strong,
56.1. love: the feeling of love. 6. wink: close in sleep.
9. intrim: interval.
10. parts the shore: separates the shores, contracted new: newly
engaged. 11. banks: shores. 12. love: the loved one.
t3 As-. as appropriately. Many editors emend to Or.
14. rare: precious.
57.4. require: demand. 8. servant: (I) slave; (2) loser.
9. question: discuss.
jealious: jealous.
10. suppose; make conjectures about. II. sad: sober.
13. true: constant, fool: one who tamely submits, will; pleasure,
particularly of the senses. The word is capitalized in the 1609 quarto.
There may be a pun on the name Vill (i.e. Shakespeare); see the
note on Sonnet 135.1,
58.2. control: regulate (7) or reprove (7).
3. th account of: an accounting for, to crave: i.e. should crave.
4. stay: await.
6. imprisond: imprisoning (since it shuts me away from you).
of: arising from, liberty; (I) freedom; (2) libertine behavior
(cf. Sonnet 41.1).
7. tame to sufferance: trained to endure anything,
bide each
check: submit to each rebuke. 9. list: please. charter: privilege.
1853
 Sonnets That you yourself may privilege your time
To what you will, to you it doth belong
Your self to pardon of self-doing crime.
I am to wait, though waiting so be hell,
Not blame your pleasure, be it ill or well.
59
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguild,
Which laboring for invention bear amiss
The second burthen of a former child
O that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundreth courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character tvas done!
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame,
Whether we are mended, or wheer better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
0, sure I am the wits of former days
To subjects tvorsc have given admiring praise.
60
Like as the waves make towards the pibbled 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, 5
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crownd,
Crooked eclipses gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beautys brow, to
Feeds on the rarities of natures 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.
61
Is it thy will thy image should keep open
M heavy eyelids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
10. privilege: license, assign.
12. self-doing: done by yourself. 13. am to: must.
59.3. laboring: (I) toiling; (2) in labor. for invention: to create Some
thing new, but particularly in a literary sense. Cf. Sonnet 38.t, 8.
courses . . .sun: years.
6. hondreth: hundred,
8. Since . . done: since thought was first recorded in writing.
-
10. composed wonder: wonderful composition. frame: shape, form.
II. are mended: have made progress. wheer: whether.
12. revolution.., same: i.e. the change of times makes no dillerence.
13. wits: talented writers.
60.1. pibbled: pebbled. 3. changing place with: taking the place of.
4. In sequent toil: toiling one after another in close succession.
forwards: forward, contend: struggle.
5. Nativity: i.e. the new-born child, main: vast expanse.
7. Crooked: malignant. 8. confound: destroy.
10 Is it thy spirit that thou sendst from thee
So far frotn home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenure of thy jealousy?
0 no, thy love, though much, is not so great,
It is my love that keeps mine eye atvake,
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 tue far off, with others all too near. 0,
62
5
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.
10 Methinks no face so gracious is as mine, 5
No shape so true, no truth of such account,
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all tvorths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and choppd with rannd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
Tis thee (myself) that for myself I praise,
Painting my- age with beauty of thy days.
63
Against my love shall be as I am now
With Times injurious hand crushd and oerworn,
When hours have draind his blood and filld his brow
With lines and wrinkles, when his youthful morn
I-lath travelld on to ages steepy night,
And all those beauties whereof now hes king d
Are vanishing, or vanishd out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
For such a time do I now fortify
Against confounding ages cruel knife, 10
That he shall never cut from memory
My stveet loves beauty, though my lovers life.
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
And they shall live, and he in them still green.
64
When I have seen by Times fell hand defaced 3.
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age; 4.
mc
jealousy: suspiciofl. 8.
61.8. scope and tenure: intent and purport.
ul 10.
II. defeat: destroy. 13. watch: (I) stand guard; (2) stay awake
night. wake: revel at night. red
62.1 As: asif (7) or in such a way that (?). other: others. 65.
34; 3.
10. Beated; beaten, battered. Cf. storm-beaten, Sonnet
choppd: chapped, cracked. tannd antiquity: old age which drid m&
13. for: as. 6. ,
and darkens the skin. Cf. Sonnet 115.7.
10.
63.1. Against: in anticipation of the time when. in 1
2. crushd and oerworn: crumpled and worn bare.
5. steepy: precipitous (referring to the dropping of the sun at
SUDSCO. 66.1
10. confounding: destroying. 3. n
9. fortify: prepare defenses. -

9. transfix the flourish: pierce through the outward decoration. 12. though: i.e. though he will cut. 14. green: young and fair. gaoi
tO. delves the parallels: digs the furrows. sal 8.
11. Feeds. ..truth: consumes the most precious things true nature 64.1. fell: savage, cruel. 10.
0flC .
produces. 12. nothing. . . mow: i.e. everything in nature is subject 2. The rich.. .age: i.e. the monuments of antiquity which were 11.
1854 to his scythe. 13. in hope: future, stand: endure. magnificent, proud, and costly. 12. i
Ii
 When sometime lofty towers
And brass eternal slave to I see down rased,
mo
When I have seen the hun rtal rage; 67
Sonnets
gry ocean gain Ah, wherefore with infect
Advantage on the kingdo 5 ion should he live,
m of the shore, And with his presence grace
And the firm soil win of the impiety,
watry main, That sin by him advantage
Increasing store with loss should achieve,
, and loss with store; And lace itself with his society
vvhen I have seen such int
erchange of state, Why should false painting im
Or state itself confounde itate his cheek,
ewhere, d to decay, And steal dead seeing of his s
Ruin hath taught me thus 10 living hue?
to ruminate, Why should poor beauty ind
That Time will come and ire
This thought is as a dea
take my love away. Roses of shadow, since his ros ctly seek
e is
th, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which Why should he live, now Natur true?
it fears to lose. Beggard of blood to blush e bankrout is,
through lively veins,
For she bath no exchequer 10
now
65 And proud of many, lives upo but his,
n his gains?
Since brass, nor stone, nor 0, him she stores, to show
ear what wealth she had
But sad mortality oersways th, nor boundless sea, In days long since, before the
se last so bad.
their power,
How with this rage shall
bea
Whose action is no stronge uty hold a plea,
r than a flower? 68
O how shall summers hon
ey
Against the wrackful siege breath hold out a Thus is his cheek the map of
days outworn,
of battring days, When beauty livd and died
.4hen rocks impregnable as flotvers do now,
are not so stout, Before these bastard signs of
10 Nor gates of steel so stro fair
O fearful meditation! where
ng, but Time decays? Or durst inhabit on a living bro were born,
,
Shall Times best jewel fro alack, Before the golden tresses of tv;
m Times chest lie hid? 10 the dead, a
Or what strong hand can The right of sepulchres, we
hol re shorn away,
Or who his spoii [of] bea d his swift foot back? To live a second life on second
head;
uty can forbid? Ere beautys dead fleece mad
0 none, unless this mirac e another gay:
le
That in black ink my lov have might, In him those holy antique hou
rs are seen,
e may still shine bright. Vithout all ornament, itse
lf and true, so
Making no summer of ano
thers green,
orn, 66 Robbing no old to dress his bea
is brow uty new,
Tird with alt these, for And him as for a map doth Na
)rn restful death I cry: ture store,
As to behold desert a beg To show false Art what bea
5 gar born, uty was of yore.
And needy nothing trim
md in jollity,
And purest faith unhapp
ily forsworn, 69
And gilded honor shame
ful
And maiden virtue rudely ly misplacd, 5 Those parts of thee that the
worlds eye doth view
strumpeted, Want nothing that the though
And right perfection wr t of
10 And strength by limpin
ongfully disgracd, All tongues (the voice of souls) hearts can mend;
g sway disabled, give thee that [due],
And art made tongue-tie Uttring bare truth, even so
d by authority, as foes commend.
And folly (doctor-like) [Thy] outward thus with out 4
ward
0. 5
And simple truth miscalld
controlling skill,
10 But those same tongues that giv praise is crownd,
simplicity, e thee so thine own,
And captive good attend In other accents do this praise
ing captain ill: confound
Tird with all these, from By seeing farther than the eye
these would I be gone, hath shotvn.
Save that to die, I leave They look into the beauty
my love alone. of thy mind,
And that in guess they me
asure by thy deeds, so
Then, churis, their though
3. sometime: formerly ts (although their eyes were
4. eternal. Modifies , once. kind)
bra
mortality. Cf. Sonnet ss, mortal rage: the destruc
tive
,iCiOfl. 8. store: abundance 65.13. 7. win of: gain at the exp power of
, plenty. 9. ense of. 67.!. with infection: in
swake all 10. state: ft) greatness; stat e: con dition. a time of moral corruption
reduced. (2) apparent stability itse 4. lace: adorn. 6. dead seeing: the lifeless .
14, to have: at having lf, confounded: appearance.
. 7. poor: inferior, defective
, indirectly: falsely, wrongf
65.1, Since: i.e. since at second hand (?). ully (7) or
ther
34.6. 3. with this rage: aga e it neither. 8. Roses of shadow: pain
ted roses.
ich dries inst this destructive pow 11. for: since. Many edit 9. ban kro ut: bankru
maintain a plea (a lega er. hold a plea: ors emend veins,.., gains? pt.
6. wrackful: destruc l figure, continued in action in line 4). to veins?. gains.; for then (lines 10, 12)
12. proud: i.e. though mak = because.
. .
tive. 8. dec ays : caus es (them) to decay.
10. from Times chest: ing a proud boast,
in Times chest. i.e. away from Ihe danger (of beauty). gain s: endowment
12. spoil: ravaging. of being locked up 13. stores: preserves, keep
14. last: latest, i.e. presen s alive.
auns) t.
66.1. these: the followi
3. needy nothing: bar
ng. 2. As: namely. 68.1. map: picture.
e insignificance (the opposit 2. as.. now: i.e. naturall
fair. gaudy dress. e of desert). jollity: 3. fair: beauty. .

4. inhabit: dwell. y.
4. unhappily forsworn: 6. The right of: rightful
8. limping sway: inco evilly betrayed. ly belo
10. doctor-like: pretend
mpetent authority.
9. art: letters, learning. 9. antique hours: ancient tim nging to.
es.
gre oncg 11. simplicity: foolish ing to wisdom, controlling: dominating
.
10. all: any. 13. store: preserve.
nes
12, attending: followi s,
ng as a subordinate, 69.2. Want nothing: have
no lack.
6. thine own: your due.
7. confound: destroy.
1855
 Sonnets To thy fair flower add the rank smelt of weeds:
But why thy odor matcheth not thy show,
The [soil] is this, that thou dost common grow.
70
That thou are b]amd shall not be thy defect,
For slanders mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heavens sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve 5
[Thy] worth the greater, being wood of time,
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou presentst a pure unstained prime.
Thou hast passd by the ambush of young days,
Either not assaild, or victor being chargd, so
Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise
To tie up envy, evermore enlargd:
If some suspect of ill maskd not thy show,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.
71
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 vildest worms to dwell;
Nay, 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.
0, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay, 10
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay;
I Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
72
0, lest the world should task you to recite
Xhat merit livd in me that you should love The coward conquest of a wretchs knife,
After my death, dear love, forget me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy prove;
14. soil: (I) ground, basis; (2) blemish. common: low, base.
prostitute (with quibble on the sense wild, uncultivated, suggested
by weeds in line 12).
70.1. are: art. 2. mark: target.
3. suspect: suspicion (so also in line 13).
4. crow. Often cited as a foul or evil bird.
5. So: provided that, approve: prove.
6. being time: i.e. since you are courted by the world.
. . .
7. canker: the rose worm. 9. ambush. days: i... temptations
. .
that lie in wait for inexperienced youth.
10. chargd. Synonymous with assaild.
11. so: sufficiently.
12. envy: malice, evermore enlargd: always at large.
13. maskd show: did not partly obscure your attractiveness.
. .
14. owe: own.
71.2. bell. The passing bell would toll once for each year of the dead
mans life.
4. vile world. A conventional expression, not used with full emphasis.
Cf. line 13. vildest: vilest. 8. make: cause.
10. compounded: mingled. II. rehearse: repeat.
12. even with: at the same time as.
14. with me: i.e. for loving me (not together with me).
1856 72.4. prove: demonstrate by evidence.
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie, 5
To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I
Than niggard truth would willingly impart:
0, lest your true love may seem false in this,
That you for love speak well of me untrue, 10
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
for I am shamd by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to love things nothing worth.
73
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 [ruind] choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day 5
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Deaths second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, 10
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumd with that which it was nourishd by.
This thou perceivst, which makes thy love more
strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
74
But be contented when that fell arrest
Without all bail shall carry me away,
My life hath in this line some interest,
1Vhich for memorial still with thee shall stay.
When thou reviewest this, thou dost review
The very part was consecrate to thee:
The earth can have but earth, which is his due,
?Vly spirit is thine, the better part of me.
So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,
5
The prey of worms, my body being dead, 10
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.
75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasond showers are to the ground;
13. I... forth. Presumably a reterence to his
10. untrue: untruly.
theatrical activities and plays, not to these sonnets.
14. should you: would you certainly be shamed, to love: for loving.
73.4. late: lately, not long ago. 8. seals: closes. 10. That: as.
in
74.1. be contented: do not repine, fell; cruel. With the image
lines 12 cf. Hamlet, V.ii.33637: this felt sergeant, Death, /
1
strict in his arrest.
3. line: poetry. Cf. Sonnet 71.5. interest: share, particLPatlon
4. still: always. 6. part was: part of me which was.
II. a wretchs knife: i.e. the weapon of that churl peat
(Sonnet 32.2). 12. of: by.
s tha it
13. The worth.. .contains: i.e. the only value of the body
contains the spirit.
75.2. sweet.seasond: coming in the sweet season, spring.
 And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As twixt a miser and his wealth is found:
Now proud as an enjover. and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then betterd that the tvorld may see my pleasure;
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starved 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.
76
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?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every tvord doth alms)st [tell] my name,
Showing their birth, and tvhere they did proceed?
0, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
tre So all my best s dressing old words new,
78 Sonilets
So oft have I invokd thee for my Muse,
And found such fair assistance in my verse,
As every alien pen bath got my use,
And under thee their poesy disperse.
Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing, a
And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
Have added feathers to the learneds wing,
And given grace a double majeSty.
Yet be most proud of that which I compile,
Whose influence is thine, and born of thee:
In others works thou dost but mend the style,
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be;
But thou art all my art, and dost advance
As high as learning my rude ignorance.
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,
My verse alone had all thy gentle grace,
But now my gracious numbers are decayd,
And my sick Muse dorh give another place.
1 grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument
10
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,
Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent -

Spending again what is already spent: He robs thee of, and pays it thee again.
for as the sun is daily new and old, He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word
So is my love still telling what is told. From thy behavior; beauty doth he give,
And found it in thy cheek; he can afiord
No praise to thee but what in thee doth live.
77 Then thank him not for that tvhich he doth say,
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties [wean, Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay.
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste,
The vacant leaves thy minds imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning rnayst thou taste. so
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show, O how I faint whet3 I of you do write,
a
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory; knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
Thou by thy dials shady stealth mayst know And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
Times thievish progress to eternity. To niake me tongue-tied, speaking of your fan3e.
Cook what thy memory cannot contain But since your worth (wide as the ocean is)
Commit to these waste {blanksl, and thou shalt find The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
Those children nursd, deliverd from thy brain, it My saucy bark (inferior far to his)
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. On your broad tuain doth willfully appear.
These oflices, so oft as thou wilt look, \our shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book. Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride,
3. peace of you: i.e. peace that comes from
Or (being wrackd) I am a worthless boat,
love of you. He of tall building and of goodly pride.
6. Doubting: fearing thai. filching age: thieving time.
12. took: derived. 13. pine and surfeit: starve and overeat.
14. Or: either, all away: nothing to feed on.
78,3 As, that, alien pen: other poet. got my use: adopted my
76.1. pride: ornament. 2. quick change: i.e. facile innovation. practice.
to his 3. time: Current fashion. 4, under thee: under your patronage. disperse: circulate.
4. compounds: kinds of literary compo 5. on high: atoud. 6. aloft to fly: i.e. to get off the ground.
sition (?) or compound
ving. words (?). 5. still: always (so also in lines tO, 14). 7. added . . . wing: i.e. enabled learned poets
who were already
6. invention: imagination, or poetic making high flights to fly still higher. 8. grace: majesty.
creation, noted weed: well-
55 known garment. 8. where: whence, 9. compile: compose. 10. influence: (sole) inspiration.
tO. argument: theme.
12. arts: learning, graces: pleasing qualities.
in 77.1. glass: mirror, wear: wear away. 2. dial: sun-dial. 13. advance: raise up.
/ Is 3. vacant leaves: blank leaves
of a notebook accompanying the
sonnet, thy minds imprint: your thoughts, ssritten 79.4. give another place: yield its place to nnoihe
tO. in the book. r.
6. mouthed: gaping, ready to devour 5. thy lovely argument: the theme of your lovable
, memory: reminder. ness,
7. shady stealth: stealing shadow. 6. travail: labor. II. afford: offer.
eath 9. Look what: whatever. 10. waste: empty.
II. nursd: cared for, i.e. preserved. 80.1. faint: grow weak and dispirited.
that it deliverd: which are delivered. 2. better spirit: more gifted poet.
12. take, . .of: i.e. yield fresh meanin 6. as: as well as.
g to. 8. willfully: perversely, i.e. against reason (?) or
13. offices: duties (perhaps with a at will, freely (?).
suggestion of the sense religious 10. soundless: unfathomed.
observances).
12. tall building: large and strong construction,
pride: splendor.
1857

I
 Sonnets Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this: my love was my decay.
81
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.
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
5
Though I (once gone) to all the world must die;
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombed in mens eyes shall lie;
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
\Vhich eyes not yet created shall oer-read, so
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse,
\hcn all the breathers of this world are dead;
You still shall Ike (such virtue hath my pen)
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of
risen.
82
I grant thou wert not married to my \Iuse,
And therefore mayest without attaint oerlook
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing every book.
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
finding thy worth a limit past my praise,
And therefore art enforcd to seek anew
Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.
And do so, love; yet whets they have devisd
XVhat strained touches rhetoric can lend,
Thou, truly fair, werr truly sympathizd
In true plain words by thy true-telling friend;
And their gross painting might be better usd
Where cheeks need blood, in thee it is abusd.
83
I nevcr saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found (or thought I fotind) you did exceed
The barren tender of a poets debt;
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself, being extant, tvell might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
1 14. decay: ruin.
81.1. Or: whether.
3. From hence: (I) from the earth; (2) from this poetry (as in line 5).
4. in. . . part: all that I am.
11. to be: future,
rehearse: recite.
12. breathers: living people.
world: time, generation.
13. virtue: power.
82.2. attaint: dishonor. orrlook: peruse.
3. dedicated: devoted, writers: i.e. other writers.
4. blessing every book: i.e. gracing every such book by your perusal.
5. hue: appearance.
6. limit: extent, reach.
8. Some days: some more up-to.date imprint of this era of
. . . Beech-c their character.
progress. 11. sympathizd; matched.
14. abusd: misapplied.
83.2. fair: beauty, set: applied.
4. tender: offering, debt: i.e. payment.
5. slept. report: neglected to praise you.
. .
6. That: because.
7. modern: ordinary, commonplace.
1858
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dumb, 10
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.
84
Who is it that says most, which can say more
Than this rich praise, that you alone are you,
In whose conne itnmured is the store
Which should exatnple where yoiat. equal grew?
Lean 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 arc you, so digni5es his story.
Let him but copy what in you is writ,
Not making worse what nature made so clear, io
And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,
Making his style admired every where.
You to your beauteous blessings add a curse,
Being fond on praise, which makes your praises
worse.
85
5
?t,Iy tongue-tied \Iuse in manners holds her still,
While comments of your praise, richly compild,
Reserve their character with golden quill
And precious phrase by all the Muses ld.
so I think good thoughts whilst other write good words,
And like unlettered clerk still cry Amen 6
To every hymn that able spirit affords
In polishd form of well-refined pen.
1-Tearing yoct praisd, I say, Tis so, tis true,
And to the most of praise add something more, 10
But that is in my thought, w-hose 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.
8. what worth: i.e. to describe such worth as.
12. tomb. Cf. Sonnet 17.34.
84.1. which: who.
34. In . . grew: i.e. within whom is contained the treasure (of
.
beauty) which would be required to produce another example of
beauty equal to you.
II. counterpart: copy.
10. clear: glorious.
fame: make famous.
13. curse: (I) an ill quality (in your own character); (2) a great
8
vexation (for your would-be praisers).
14. Being fond: doting. makes.. worse: (I) diminishes the praise
.
due you; (2) encourages poets to go beyond the simple descripttofl
8.
that would be your best praise. Various annotators, believtng that
It
the sense requires the second meaning here (and in the gloss for
curse), suspect corruption in Being fontl on.
a,
85.1. in.. still: politely keeps silent.
.
2. comments: elaborations. compild: composed. 3.
3. Reserve their character: treasure up their writing f?) The passage
8.
may be corrupt, and many emendations have been proposed. e.g. -
IC
4. fild: polished, refined.
11
5. other: others. 12
6. unlettered clerk: illiterate assistant to a priest.
I
-
13
10. most: utmost. II. in my thought: i.e. silent.
Ri
12. before: i.e. before ull others, in first place.
13. respect: take notice of regard.
88
14. speaking in effect: having the same effect as speaking.
3.
7.
 86 Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. Sonnets
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
Bound for the prize of all-too-precious you, That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew? 89
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write Say that thou
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead? didst forsake me for some fault,
No, neither he, nor his cotnpeers And I tvill comment upon that offense;
night by

Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
He, nor that affable familiar ghost
Which 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 fllld up his line,
Then lackd I matter, that enfeebled mine.
87
farewelt, thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou knowst thy estimate;
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
raises for how do I hold thee but by thy granting, a Then hate mc when thott wilt, if ever, now,
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 gavst, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gavst it, else mistaking, io
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.
88
When thou shalt be disposd to set mc light,
And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side against myself Ill fight,
)efore. And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted, 5 Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults conceald, wherein I am attainted,
That thou in losing me shall win much glory.
And I by this wilt be a gainer too,
for bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
sure (of 10
imple o1 The injuries that to myself I do,
a great 86.2. prize: capture (used of a ship, particularly a rich
cargo-ship,
taken at sea). 3. inhearse: bury. 6. pitch: height.
he praise 7. compeers: associates (the spirits of line
scripti0l 5).
8. astonished: stunned, paralyzed. 9. ghost: spirit.
ving that 10. gulls: deceptively provides,
gloss far intelligence: late news, ideas.
13. your . line: (1) your acceptance of his poetry compensated for
. .
Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt,
Against thy reasons making no defense.
Thou canst nor, love, disgrace me half so ill, 5
To set a form upon desired change,
As Ill myself disgrace, knowing thy will:
I will acquaintance strangle and took strange,
Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell, 10
Lest I (too much profane) should do it wrong,
And haply of our old acquaintance tell.
for thee, against myself Ill vow debate,
for I must neer love him whom thou dost hate.
90
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.
Ah, do not, when my heart hath scapd this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conqucrd woe; 6
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposd overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
XVhen other petty griefs have done their spite, 10
But in the onset come, so tshalll I raste
At first the very worst of fortunes might;
And other strains of woe, which notv seem woe,
Compard with loss of thee will not Sccm so.
91
Some in their wealth, some in their bodys force,
Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill,
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every humor hath his adjunct pleasure, S
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest,
But these particulars are not my measure,
All these I better in one general best.
12. vantage: advantage.
89.2. comment: enlarge, expatiate.
3. Speak.
halt: i.e. ascribe to me any defect, and t will at once
. .

anything wanting in it; (2) your beauty became the subject of (straight) assume it. Halt limp. 4. reasons: assertions.
his verse. 5. disgrace: discredit. 6. form: plausible appearance.
87.1. dear: precious. 2. estimate: value. 8. acquaintance strangle: put an end to our familiarity, strange:
3. charter of: privilege conferred by. like a stranger. 13. debate: warfare.
4. determinate: expired.
8. patent: title, swerving: returning.
10. mistaking: i.e. overestimating. 90.2. cross: frustrate.
It. upon misprision growing: originating in 4. drop . after-loss: come in unexpectedly to inflict a second loss
. .
error. on me.
12. making: being made (by you).
1314. dream, flatter, king. A Shakespearean image 6. in. , woe: following a woe I have managed to survive.
.

cluster. Cf. 8. linger out: protract. 13. strains: kinds and degrees.
Romeo and Juliet, It.ii. 14041, Vi. 15.

88.1. Set me light: rate me slightingly, depreciate 91.3. new-fangled ill: fashionably ugly.
me. 4. horse. A common plural.
3. Upon thy side: in support of your case.
6. part: side, 5. humor: temperament.
7. conceald: not publicly known. his: its. ad1unct: attendant, related.
attainted: disgraced. 7. measure: i.e. criterion of happiness. 8. better: surpass. 1859
Sonnets Thy love is [better] than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments cost,
Of more delight than hawks or horses be;
And having thee, of all mens pride I boast:
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
All this away, and me most wretched make.
92
But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
for term of life thou art assured mine,
And life no longer than thy love will stay,
For it depends upon that love of thine.
Then 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,
Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie;
0, what a happy title do I find,
Happy to have thy love, happy to die!
But whats so blessed-fair that fears no blot?
Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not.
93
So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceived husband, so loves face
May still seem love to me, though alterd new:
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place.
For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
In manys looks the false hearts history
Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange;
But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell;
What eer thy thoughts or thy hearts workings be,
Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
How like Eves apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!
94
They that have powr to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Nho moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heavens graces,
And husband natures riches from expense;
10. prouder: mote an object of pride.
12. of... boast: I boast of having the equivalent of all other sources
of pride put together.
92.8. humor: fancy, caprice.
10. my. . . lie: i.e. your desertion would kill me.
11. happy title: right to be called happy.
13. that fears: as to teat.
93.2. lones face: the appearance of love (but by line 4 face has
become literal). 3. new: i.e. to something new.
8. moods: moodyexpressions. wrinklesstrange: unfriendlyscowls.
14. answer.. show: does not match your appearance.
. 96.2. sport. Cf. Sonnet 95.6. Wantonness in line us
94.2. the thing.. show: what their appearance strongly implies.
.
4. cold: dispassionate.
5. rightly do inherit: i.e. make proper use of (inherit possess, enjoy).
6. husband . . expense: keep the riches of nature (physical beauty)
.
from wasteful expenditure or loss.
1860
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
10 Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summers flowr is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die, 10
But if that flowr 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.
95
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
.Vhich, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
5 Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!
0, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose!
That tongue that tells the story of thy days 5
(Making lascivious comments on thy sport)
Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise,
10 Naming thy name blesses an ill report.
0, what a mansion have those vices got
Nhich for their habitation chose out thee, 10
Where beautys 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 usd doth lose his edge.
96
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness,
Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;
5 Both grace and faults are lovd of more and less:
Thou makst faults graces that to thee resort.
As on the finger of a throned queen 5
The basest jewel will be well esteemd,
So are those errors that in thee are seen
10
To truths translated, and for true things deemd.
How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,
If like a lamb he could his looks translate! 10
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.
97 .4
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 Decembers bareness every where!
And yet this time removd was summers time, 5
8. stewards: i.e. dispensers, distributors.
10. to... only: to itself alone it. With the line cf. Sonnet 54.11.
12. outbraves: surpasses in splendor. his dignity: its worth.
14. Lilies . weeds. This line occurs also in The Reign of King
. .
Edward 111 (lI.i.45l).
95.3. name: reputation. 6. sport: amorous dalliance. p15cC.
8. blesses: graces, makes favorable. 9. mansion: dwelling
5ynonymouL 5
3. of... less: i.e. by persons of all ranks. 6
8. translated: transformed. 9. stem: savage. 7
12. the strength. . . state: all your power. 0
1314. But. . report. The same couplet ends Sonnet 36.
. .8 it
97.5. time removd: time of separation. h
.
 The teeming autumn, big with rich incre
ase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prim 100
e, Sonnets
Like widowed tvombs after their lords Where art thou, Muse, that thou forgc
decease: tst
Yet this abundant issue seenld to me To speak of that which gives thee all thy so long
But hope of orphans and unfathered fruit
, Spendst thou thy fury on some tvorthless might?
Darkning thy powr to lend base subjects song,
10
for summer and his pleasures tvait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute; Return, forgetful Muse, and straight rede light?
Or if they sing, tis with so dull a cheer em
In gentle numbers time so idly spent;
That leaves look pale, dreading the wint Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem,
ers near.
And gives thy pen both skill and argumen
t.
98 Rise, testy Muse, my loves sweet face
survey,
If Time have any wrinkle graven there;
from you have I been absent in the sprin If any, be a satire to decay, 10
g,
When proud-pied April (dressd in all his And make Times spoils despised every wher
trim) e.
Harh put a spirit of youth in every thing Give my love fame faster than Time wast
, es life,
That heavy Saturn laughd and leapt with So thou preventsc his scythe and crooked
him. knife.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet
smell s
Of different flowers in odor and in hue,
Could make me any summers story tell, 101
Or from their proud lap pluck them where 0 truant Muse, what shall be thy amen
they grew; ds
Nor did I wonder at the lilys white, for thy neglect of truth in beauty dvd
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose, ?
10 Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
They were but sweet, but figures of delig So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
ht,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all thos i\Iake answer, ]Iuse, wilt thou not hapt
e. v say,
Yet seemd it winter still, and, you away Truth needs no color with his color fixd 5
, ,
As with your shadow I with these did play Beauty no pencil, beautys truth to lay;
.
But best is best, if never intermixd?
99 Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be
dumb?
Excuse not silence so, fort lies in thee
The forward violet thus did I chide: To make him much outlive a gilded tomb 10
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy ,
sweet that And to be praisd of ages yet to be.
smells, Then do thy ofHce, Muse; I teach thee how
If not from my loves breath? The purp To make him seem long hence, as he show
le pride s now.
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion
dwells
In my loves veins thou hast too grossly
dyd. a 102
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of mar)erom had stoln thy hair; My love is strengthned, though more weak
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, in seeming,
I love not less, though less the show appear;
[One] blushing shame, another white desp That love is merchandizd whose rich estee
air; ming
A third, nor red nor white, had stoln of both The owners tongue doth publish every wher
, e.
And to his robbry had annexd thy breath, Our love was new, and then but in the sprin
But for his theft in pride of all his growth g, 5
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
A vengeful canker eat him up to death. As Philomel in summers front doth sing
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see ,
And stops [her] pipe in growth of riper
But sweet or color it had stoln from thee. days:
y
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush
6. big: pregnant. the night,
But that wild music burthens every boug
7. the wanton . . prime: the childre
.
n of wanton springtime, i.e. h, ii
crops then planted. 11. his: its. the And sweets grown common lose their dear
13. with. . . cheer: i.e. in so melanc delight.
holy a fashion.
98.2. proud.pied: brilliantly multi.c 100.3. fury: poetic inspiration.
olored. trim: finery. Cf rage, Sonnet 17.11.
4. heavy: melancholy, morose. 4. Darkning: debasing.
The planet Saturn was associated 6. gentle numbers: noble verses.
with gloom and sluggishness. 8. argument: subject matter.
5. Yet nor: yet neither. 9. resty: tazy. 10. If: to see if.
II. If. . decay: i.e. if you find any, compose
.
6. different flowers: flowers varied. of time (satire satires ott the ruins
satirist). 12. spoils: ravages.
7. summers story: pleasant narrati 13. faster. Used in the senses swiftly
ve. II. figures: symbols. and firmly at the same time
14. shadow: portrait. these: i.e. the flowers. See Sonnet (Schmidt).
99. 14. preventst: frustratest.
99.1. The.. chide. An extra, introdu crooked knife: curved blade (anoth
.
ctory line, way of saying scythe). er
a common epithet for the violet. forwar d: early,
2. Sweet: scent.
5. grossly: obviously. 101.6. no color with: i.e. no artifici
6. for: i.e. for stealing its whiteness al color added to (with play on
from. color false pretense). his: its.
7. marjerom: marjoram. The line fixd: native, unchangeable.
has been variously explained 7. pencil: painters brush, lay: apply color to (a technical
referring to the color (dark auburn as 8. intermixd: adulterated. term).
?) or the scent of the hair, or 12. of: by. 13. office: function.
its tight ringlets. to
11. to... annexd: to his robbery 102.3. merchandizd: commercialize
had added the theft of (?) or d, esteeming: valuation.
his stolen attributes had added to 4. publish: advertise.
(7).
13. eat: was eating. 7. Philomel: the nightingale. front: beginning. 11. wild: unre
strained, profuse. burthens: (I) loads; (2) provides chorus
es from.
1861