The Sonnets
- I. FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,
- II. When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
- III. Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
- IV. Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
- V. Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
- VI. Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
- VII. Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
- VIII. Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
- IX. Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
- X. For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
- XI. As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest
- XII. When I do count the clock that tells the time,
- XIII. O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
- XIV. Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
- XV. When I consider every thing that grows
- XVI. But wherefore do not you a mightier way
- XVII. Who will believe my verse in time to come,
- XVIII. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
- XIX. Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
- XX. A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
- XXI. So is it not with me as with that Muse
- XXII. My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
- XXIII. As an unperfect actor on the stage
- XXIV. Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd
- XXV. Let those who are in favour with their stars
- XXVI. Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
- XXVII. Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
- XXVIII. How can I then return in happy plight,
- XXIX. When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
- XXX. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
- XXXI. Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,
- XXXII. If thou survive my well-contented day,
- XXXIII. Full many a glorious morning have I seen
- XXXIV. Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
- XXXV. No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
- XXXVI. Let me confess that we two must be twain,
- XXXVII. As a decrepit father takes delight
- XXXVIII. How can my Muse want subject to invent,
- XXXIX. O, how thy worth with manners may I sing,
- XL. Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
- XLI. Those petty wrongs that liberty commits,
- XLII. That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,
- XLIII. When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
- XLIV. If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
- XLV. The other two, slight air and purging fire,
- XLVI. Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
- XLVII. Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
- XLVIII. How careful was I, when I took my way,
- XLIX. Against that time, if ever that time come,
- L. How heavy do I journey on the way,
- LI. Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
- LII. So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
- LIII. What is your substance, whereof are you made,
- LIV. O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
- LV. Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
- LVI. Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
- LVII. Being your slave, what should I do but tend
- LVIII. That god forbid that made me first your slave,
- LIX. If there be nothing new, but that which is
- LX. Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
- LXI. Is it thy will thy image should keep open
- LXII. Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
- LXIII. Against my love shall be, as I am now,
- LXIV. When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
- LXV. Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
- LXVI. Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
- LXVII. Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
- LXVIII. Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,
- LXIX. Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
- LXX. That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
- LXXI. No longer mourn for me when I am dead
- LXXII. O, lest the world should task you to recite
- LXXIII. That time of year thou mayst in me behold
- LXXIV. But be contented: when that fell arrest
- LXXV. So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
- LXXVI. Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
- LXXVII. Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
- LXXVIII. So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
- LXXIX. Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,
- LXXX. O, how I faint when I of you do write,
- LXXXI. Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
- LXXXII. I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
- LXXXIII. I never saw that you did painting need
- LXXXIV. Who is it that says most? which can say more
- LXXXV. My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still,
- LXXXVI. Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
- LXXXVII. Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
- LXXXVIII. When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,
- LXXXIX. Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,
- XC. Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
- XCI. Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
- XCII. But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
- XCIII. So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
- XCIV. They that have power to hurt and will do none,
- XCV. How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
- XCVI. Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
- XCVII. How like a winter hath my absence been
- XCVIII. From you have I been absent in the spring,
- XCIX. The forward violet thus did I chide:
- C. Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
- CI. O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
- CII. My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
- CIII. Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
- CIV. To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
- CV. Let not my love be call'd idolatry,
- CVI. When in the chronicle of wasted time
- CVII. Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
- CVIII. What's in the brain that ink may character
- CIX. O, never say that I was false of heart,
- CX. Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there
- CXI. O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
- CXII. Your love and pity doth the impression fill
- CXIII. Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind;
- CXIV. Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
- CXV. Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
- CXVI. Let me not to the marriage of true minds
- CXVII. Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
- CXVIII. Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
- CXIX. What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
- CXX. That you were once unkind befriends me now,
- CXXI. 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
- CXXII. Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
- CXXIII. No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
- CXXIV. If my dear love were but the child of state,
- CXXV. Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,
- CXXVI. O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
- CXXVII. In the old age black was not counted fair,
- CXXVIII. How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st,
- CXXIX. The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
- CXXX. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
- CXXXI. Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
- CXXXII. Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
- CXXXIII. Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
- CXXXIV. So, now I have confess'd that he is thine,
- CXXXV. Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'
- CXXXVI. If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near,
- CXXXVII. Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
- CXXXVIII. When my love swears that she is made of truth
- CXXXIX. O, call not me to justify the wrong
- CXL. Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
- CXLI. In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
- CXLII. Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
- CXLIII. Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch
- CXLIV. Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
- CXLV. Those lips that Love's own hand did make
- CXLVI. Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
- CXLVII. My love is as a fever, longing still
- CXLVIII. O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head,
- CXLIX. Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
- CL. O, from what power hast thou this powerful might
- CLI. Love is too young to know what conscience is;
- CLII. In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
- CLIII. Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep:
- CLIV. The little Love-god lying once asleep