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 heaven find.
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And
constant stars in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thy self, to store thou wouldst convert:
Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.
15
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in
perfection but a little moment.
That this huge stage presenteth
nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment.
When I
perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky:
Vaunt in their
youthful sap, at
height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory.
Then the
conceit of this in
constant stay,
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where
wasteful time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
16
But
wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this
bloodytyrant Time?
And
fortify your self in your decay
With means more
blessed than my
barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many
maiden gardens yet unset,
With
virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repair
Which this (Time's pencil) or my pupil pen
Neither in
inward worth nor
outward fair
Can make you live your self in eyes of men.
To give away your self, keeps your self still,
And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill.
17
Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts:
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say this poet lies,
Such
heavenly touches ne'er touched
earthly faces.
So should my papers (yellowed with their age)
Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be termed a poet's rage,
And stretched metre of an
antique song.
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice in it, and in my rhyme.
18
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 dimmed,
And every fair from fair
sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's c
hanging course untrimmed:
But thy
eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in
eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
19
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 fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt swift-footed Time
To the wide world and all her fading sweets:
But I
forbid thee one most heinous crime,
O carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine
antique pen,
Him in thy course untainted do allow,
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst old Time:
despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
20
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou the master
mistress of my passion,
A woman's gentle heart but not acquainted
With 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,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she
wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by
addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
21
So is it not with me as with that muse,
Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heaven it self for
ornament doth use,
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,
Making a couplement of proud compare
With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems:
With April's first-born flowers and all things rare,
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
O let me true in love but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair,
As any mother's child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air:
Let them say more that like of hearsay well,
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
22
My glass shall not
persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee,
Is but the seemly
raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me,
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O
therefore love be of thyself so wary,
As I not for my self, but for thee will,
Bearing thy heart which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,
Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.
23
As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some
fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's
abundance weakens his own heart;
So I for fear of trust, forget to say,
The perfect
ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharged with burthen of mine own love's might:
O let my looks be then the eloquence,
And dumb presagers of my
speaking breast,
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more expressed.
O learn to read what silent love hath writ,
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
24
Mine eye hath played the
painter and hath stelled,
Thy beauty's form in table of my heart,
My body is the frame
wherein 'tis held,
And
perspective it is best
painter's art.
For through the
painter must you see his skill,
To find where your true image pictured lies,
Which in my bosom's shop is
hanging still,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes:
Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done,
Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me
Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun
Delights to peep, to gaze
therein on thee;
Yet eyes this
cunning want to grace their art,
They draw but what they see, know not the heart.
25
Let those who are in favour with their stars,
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I whom fortune of such
triumph bars
Unlooked for joy in that I honour most;
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread,
But as the
marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The
painfulwarrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foiled,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled:
Then happy I that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove nor be removed.
26
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, not to show my wit.
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in
wanting words to show it;
But that I hope some good
conceit of thine
In thy soul's thought (all naked) will
bestow it:
Till
whatsoever star that guides my moving,
Points on me
graciously with fair aspect,
And puts
apparel on my
tattered loving,
To show me
worthy of thy sweet respect,
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee,
Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.
27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear respose for limbs with travel tired,
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's work's expired.
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)
Intend a
zealouspilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see.