| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| William Shakespeare. 1564–1616 |
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150. Sonnets
vi |
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| 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 odour which doth in it live. | |
| The Canker-blooms have full as deep a dye | 5 |
| As the perfumèd tincture of the Roses, | |
| Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly | |
| When summer's breath their maskèd buds discloses: | |
| But—for their virtue only is their show— | |
| They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, | 10 |
| Die to themselves. Sweet Roses do not so; | |
| Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made. | |
| And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, | |
| When that shall vade, my verse distils your truth. | |
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