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Reference
>
William Shakespeare
>
The Oxford Shakespeare
> Poetry Contents
William
Shakespeare
Poetry Contents
V
ENUS AND
A
DONIS
T
HE
R
APE OF
L
UCRECE
S
ONNETS
From fairest creatures we desire increase
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
Then let not winters ragged hand deface
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
Music to hear, why hearst thou music sadly
?
Is it for fear to wet a widows eye
For shame! deny that thou bearst love to any
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growst
When I do count the clock that tells the time
O! that you were yourself; but, love you are
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck
When I consider every thing that grows
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Who will believe my verse in time to come
Shall I compare thee to a summers day
?
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lions paws
A womans face with Natures own hand painted
So is it not with me as with that Muse
My glass shall not persuade me I am old
As an unperfect actor on the stage
Mine eye hath playd the painter and hath stelld
Let those who are in favour with their stars
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
How can I then return in happy plight
When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
If thou survive my well-contented day
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
No more be grievd at that which thou hast done
Let me confess that we two must be twain
As a decrepit father takes delight
How can my Muse want subject to invent
O! how thy worth with manners may I sing
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
The other two, slight air and purging fire
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
How careful was I when I took my way
Against that time, if ever that time come
How heavy do I journey on the way
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
What is your substance, whereof are you made
O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
That god forbid that made me first your slave
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
Is it thy will thy image should keep open
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
Against my love shall be, as I am now
When I have seen by Times fell hand defacd
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
Tird with all these, for restful death I cry
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
Those parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view
That thou art blamd shall not be thy defect
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
O! lest the world should task you to recite
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
But be contented: when that fell arrest
So are you to my thoughts as food to life
Why is my verse so barren of new pride
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
So oft have I invokd thee for my Muse
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
O! how I faint when I of you do write
Or I shall live your epitaph to make
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
I never saw that you did painting need
Who is it that says most? which can say more
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
When thou shalt be disposd to set me light
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
But do thy worst to steal thyself away
So shall I live, supposing thou art true
They that have power to hurt and will do none
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
How like a winter hath my absence been
From you have I been absent in the spring
The forward violet thus did I chide
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forgetst so long
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
My love is strengthend, though more weak in seeming
Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth
To me, fair friend, you never can be old
Let not my love be calld idolatry
When in the chronicle of wasted time
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
What s in the brain, that ink may character
O! never say that I was false of heart
Alas! tis true I have gone here and there
O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide
Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
Or whether doth my mind, being crownd with you
Those lines that I before have writ do lie
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
Like as, to make our appetites more keen
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
That you were once unkind befriends me now
Tis better to be vile than vile esteemd
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
If my dear love were but the child of state
Were t aught to me I bore the canopy
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
In the old age black was not counted fair
How oft when thou, my music, music playst
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
So, now I have confessd that he is thine
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy
Will
If thy soul check thee that I come so near
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
When my love swears that she is made of truth
O! call not me to justify the wrong
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
Two loves I have of comfort and despair
Those lips that Loves own hand did make
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
My love is as a fever, longing still
O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head
Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
O! from what power hast thou this powerful might
Love is too young to know what conscience is
In loving thee thou knowst I am forsworn
Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
The little Love-god lying once asleep
A L
OVERS
C
OMPLAINT
T
HE
P
ASSIONATE
P
ILGRIM
When my love swears that she is made of truth
Two loves I have of comfort and despair
Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye
Sweet Cytherea, sitting by a brook
If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love
?
Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn
Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle
If music and sweet poetry agree
Fair was the morn when the fair queen of love
Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluckd, soon vaded
Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her
Crabbed age and youth cannot live together
Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good
Good night, good rest. Ah! neither be my share
S
ONNETS TO
S
UNDRY
N
OTES OF
M
USIC
It was a lordings daughter, the fairest one of three
On a day, alack the day
!
My flocks feed not
Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame
Live with me, and be my love
As it fell upon a day
T
HE
P
HOENIX AND THE
T
URTLE
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