William Shakespeare

"Those lips that Loves own hand did make,     Breathed forth the sound that said I hate,     To me that languishd for her sake:     But when"

"When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,     And dig deep trenches in thy beautys field,     Thy youths proud livery so gazed on now,     W"

"So are you to my thoughts as food to life,     Or as sweet-seasond showers are to the ground;     And for the peace of you I hold such strife"

"Thus can my love excuse the slow offence     Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed:     From where thou art why should I haste me thence?"

"From off a hill whose concave womb reworded     A plaintful story from a sistering vale,     My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,"

"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 the"

"Is it for fear to wet a widows eye,     That thou consumst thy self in single life?     Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,     The world"

"That god forbid, that made me first your slave,     I should in thought control your times of pleasure,     Or at your hand the account of hours"

"Two loves I have of comfort and despair,     Which like two spirits do suggest me still:     The better angel is a man right fair,     The wors"

"Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan     For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!     Ist not enough to torture me alone,"

"No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:     Thy pyramids built up with newer might     To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;     T"

"My love is strengthend, though more weak in seeming;     I love not less, though less the show appear;     That love is merchandizd, whose ric"

"Your love and pity doth the impression fill,     Which vulgar scandal stampd upon my brow;     For what care I who calls me well or ill,     S"

"O! that you were your self; but, love you are     No longer yours, than you your self here live:     Against this coming end you should prepare,"

"If my dear love were but the child of state,     It might for Fortunes bastard be unfatherd,     As subject to Times love or to Times hate,"

"Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,     And like enough thou knowst thy estimate,     The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;"

"O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power     Dost hold Times fickle glass, his fickle hour;     Who hast by waning grown, and therein showst"

"How oft when thou, my music, music playst,     Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds     With thy sweet fingers when thou gently swayst"

"So shall I live, supposing thou art true,     Like a deceived husband; so loves face     May still seem love to me, though alterd new;     Th"

"O! from what power hast thou this powerful might,     With insufficiency my heart to sway?     To make me give the lie to my true sight,     An"

"What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,     Distilld from limbecks foul as hell within,     Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,"

"O! never say that I was false of heart,     Though absence seemd my flame to qualify,     As easy might I from my self depart     As from my s"

"O! how I faint when I of you do write,     Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,     And in the praise thereof spends all his might,"

"Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul     Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,     Can yet the lease of my true love control,"

"Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,     Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;     These vacant leaves thy minds imprint will bea"

"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"

"Mine eye hath playd the painter and hath stelld,     Thy beautys form in table of my heart;     My body is the frame wherein tis held,"

"My love is as a fever longing still,     For that which longer nurseth the disease;     Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,     The un"

"Shall I compare thee to a summers day?     Thou art more lovely and more temperate:     Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,     And"

"That thou art blamd shall not be thy defect,     For slanders mark was ever yet the fair;     The ornament of beauty is suspect,     A crow t"

"Let me confess that we two must be twain,     Although our undivided loves are one:     So shall those blots that do with me remain,     Withou"

"Let the bird of loudest lay,     On the sole Arabian tree,     Herald sad and trumpet be,     To whose sound chaste wings obey.     But thou"

"When thou shalt be disposd to set me light,     And place my merit in the eye of scorn,     Upon thy side, against myself Ill fight,     And"

"Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;     And yet methinks I have astronomy,     But not to tell of good or evil luck,     Of plagues, of"

"When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes     I all alone beweep my outcast state,     And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,     A"

"The other two, slight air, and purging fire     Are both with thee, wherever I abide;     The first my thought, the other my desire,     These"

"My glass shall not persuade me I am old,     So long as youth and thou are of one date;     But when in thee times furrows I behold,     Then"

"So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse,     And found such fair assistance in my verse     As every alien pen hath got my use     And under the"

"I never saw that you did painting need,     And therefore to your fair no painting set;     I found, or thought I found, you did exceed     Tha"

"How can my muse want subject to invent,     While thou dost breathe, that pourst into my verse     Thine own sweet argument, too excellent"

"The little Love-god lying once asleep,     Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,     Whilst many nymphs that vowd chaste life to keep"

"Let those who are in favour with their stars     Of public honour and proud titles boast,     Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars     U"

"Against that time, if ever that time come,     When I shall see thee frown on my defects,     When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,     Ca"

"Who will believe my verse in time to come,     If it were filld with your most high deserts?     Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb"

"The expense of spirit in a waste of shame     Is lust in action: and till action, lust     Is perjurd, murderous, bloody, full of blame,     S"

"Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,     Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:     O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,"

"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,"

"When I have seen by Times fell hand defacd     The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;     When sometime lofty towers I see down-razd,"

"Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage     Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,     To thee I send this written embassage,     To witness duty,"

"Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,     And make me travel forth without my cloak,     To let base clouds oertake me in my way,     H"

"They that have power to hurt, and will do none,     That do not do the thing they most do show,     Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,"

"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"

"Love is too young to know what conscience is,     Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?     Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,"

"Dedication.     'Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo     Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.'     TO THE     RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY WR"

"So is it not with me as with that Muse,     Stirrd by a painted beauty to his verse,     Who heaven itself for ornament doth use     And every"

"That you were once unkind befriends me now,     And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,     Needs must I under my transgression bow,     Un"

"In the old age black was not counted fair,     Or if it were, it bore not beautys name;     But now is black beautys successive heir,     And"

"So, now I have confessd that he is thine,     And I my self am mortgagd to thy will,     Myself Ill forfeit, so that other mine     Thou wil"

"Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest     Now is the time that face should form another;     Whose fresh repair if now thou not renew"

"That thou hast her it is not all my grief,     And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;     That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,     A"