A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand paintedHast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquaintedWith shifting change, as is false women’s fashion;An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;A man in hue, all ‘hues’ in his controlling,Much steals men’s eyes and women’s souls […]

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws,And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,And do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,To the wide world and all her fading sweets;But I forbid thee one […]

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;But […]

Who will believe my verse in time to come,If it were fill’d with your most high deserts?Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tombWhich hides your life and shows not half your parts.If I could write the beauty of your eyesAnd in fresh numbers number all your graces,The age to come would say […]

But wherefore do not you a mightier wayMake war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?And fortify yourself in your decayWith means more blessed than my barren rhyme?Now stand you on the top of happy hours,And many maiden gardens yet unsetWith virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,Much liker than your painted counterfeit:So should the lines of […]

When I consider every thing that growsHolds in perfection but a little moment,That this huge stage presenteth nought but showsWhereon the stars in secret influence comment;When I perceive that men as plants increase,Cheered and cheque’d even by the self-same sky,Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,And wear their brave state out of memory;Then the […]

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,Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,Or say with princes if it shall go well,By oft predict that I in […]

O, that you were yourself! but, love, you areNo 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 leaseFind no determination: then you wereYourself again after yourself’s decease,When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.Who lets […]

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 silver’d o’er with white;When lofty trees I see barren of leavesWhich erst from heat did canopy the herd,And summer’s green all girded up in sheavesBorne on the bier […]

As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growestIn one of thine, from that which thou departest;And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestowestThou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest.Herein lives wisdom, beauty and increase:Without this, folly, age and cold decay:If all were minded so, the times should ceaseAnd threescore year would […]