The Sonnets Read online

  By looking on thee in the living day,

  When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade

  Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!

  All days are nights to see till I see thee,

  And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

  XLIV

  If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,

  Injurious distance should not stop my way;

  For then despite of space I would be brought,

  From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.

  No matter then although my foot did stand

  Upon the farthest earth removʼd from thee;

  For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,

  As soon as think the place where he would be.

  But, ah! thought kills me that I am not thought,

  To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,

  But that so much of earth and water wrought,

  I must attend timeʼs leisure with my moan;

  Receiving nought by elements so slow

  But heavy tears, badges of eitherʼs woe.

  XLV

  The other two, slight air, and purging fire

  Are both with thee, wherever I abide;

  The first my thought, the other my desire,

  These present-absent with swift motion slide.

  For when these quicker elements are gone

  In tender embassy of love to thee,

  My life, being made of four, with two alone

  Sinks down to death, oppressʼd with melancholy;

  Until lifeʼs composition be recurʼd

  By those swift messengers returnʼd from thee,

  Who even but now come back again, assurʼd,

  Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:

  This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,

  I send them back again, and straight grow sad.

  XLVI

  Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,

  How to divide the conquest of thy sight;

  Mine eye my heart thy pictureʼs sight would bar,

  My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.

  My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,—

  A closet never piercʼd with crystal eyes—

  But the defendant doth that plea deny,

  And says in him thy fair appearance lies.

  To side this title is impannelled

  A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;

  And by their verdict is determined

  The clear eyeʼs moiety, and the dear heartʼs part:

  As thus; mine eyeʼs due is thy outward part,

  And my heartʼs right, thy inward love of heart.

  XLVII

  Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,

  And each doth good turns now unto the other:

  When that mine eye is famishʼd for a look,

  Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,

  With my loveʼs picture then my eye doth feast,

  And to the painted banquet bids my heart;

  Another time mine eye is my heartʼs guest,

  And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:

  So, either by thy picture or my love,

  Thy self away, art present still with me;

  For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,

  And I am still with them, and they with thee;

  Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight

  Awakes my heart, to heartʼs and eyeʼs delight.

  XLVIII

  How careful was I when I took my way,

  Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,

  That to my use it might unused stay

  From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!

  But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,

  Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,

  Thou best of dearest, and mine only care,

  Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.

  Thee have I not lockʼd up in any chest,

  Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,

  Within the gentle closure of my breast,

  From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;

  And even thence thou wilt be stolʼn I fear,

  For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.

  XLIX

  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,

  Callʼd to that audit by advisʼd respects;

  Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,

  And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,

  When love, converted from the thing it was,

  Shall reasons find of settled gravity;

  Against that time do I ensconce me here,

  Within the knowledge of mine own desert,

  And this my hand, against my self uprear,

  To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:

  To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,

  Since why to love I can allege no cause.

  L

  How heavy do I journey on the way,

  When what I seek, my weary travelʼs end,

  Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,

  ‘Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!’

  The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,

  Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,

  As if by some instinct the wretch did know

  His rider lovʼd not speed, being made from thee:

  The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,

  That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,

  Which heavily he answers with a groan,

  More sharp to me than spurring to his side;

  For that same groan doth put this in my mind,

  My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.

  LI

  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?

  Till I return, of posting is no need.

  O! what excuse will my poor beast then find,

  When swift extremity can seem but slow?

  Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind,

  In winged speed no motion shall I know,

  Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;

  Therefore desire, of perfectʼst love being made,

  Shall neigh—no dull flesh—in his fiery race;

  But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade,—

  ‘Since from thee going, he went wilful-slow,

  Towards thee Iʼll run, and give him leave to go.’

  LII

  So am I as the rich, whose blessed key,

  Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,

  The which he will not every hour survey,

  For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.

  Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,

  Since, seldom coming in that long year set,

  Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,

  Or captain jewels in the carcanet.

  So is the time that keeps you as my chest,

  Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,

  To make some special instant special-blest,

  By new unfolding his imprisonʼd pride.

  Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope,

  Being had, to triumph; being lacked, to hope.

  LIII

  What is your substance, whereof are you made,

  That millions of strange shadows on you tend?

  Since every one, hath every one, one shade,

  And you but one, can every shadow lend.

  Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit

  Is poorly imitated after you;

  On Helenʼs cheek all art of beauty set,

  And you in Grecian tires are painted new:

  Spe
ak of the spring, and foison of the year,

  The one doth shadow of your beauty show,

  The other as your bounty doth appear;

  And you in every blessed shape we know.

  In all external grace you have some part,

  But you like none, none you, for constant heart.

  LIV

  O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem

  By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.

  The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem

  For that sweet odour, which doth in it live.

  The canker blooms have full as deep a dye

  As the perfumed tincture of the roses.

  Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly

  When summerʼs breath their masked buds discloses:

  But, for their virtue only is their show,

  They live unwooʼd, and unrespected fade;

  Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;

  Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odours made:

  And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,

  When that shall vade, by verse distills your truth.

  LV

  Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

  Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

  But you shall shine more bright in these contents

  Than unswept stone, besmearʼd with sluttish time.

  When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

  And broils root out the work of masonry,

  Nor Mars his sword, nor warʼs quick fire shall burn

  The living record of your memory.

  ʼGainst death, and all-oblivious enmity

  Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

  Even in the eyes of all posterity

  That wear this world out to the ending doom.

  So, till the judgment that yourself arise,

  You live in this, and dwell in loversʼ eyes.

  LVI

  Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said

  Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,

  Which but to-day by feeding is allayʼd,

  To-morrow sharpened in his former might:

  So, love, be thou, although to-day thou fill

  Thy hungry eyes, even till they wink with fulness,

  To-morrow see again, and do not kill

  The spirit of love, with a perpetual dulness.

  Let this sad interim like the ocean be

  Which parts the shore, where two contracted new

  Come daily to the banks, that when they see

  Return of love, more blest may be the view;

  Or call it winter, which being full of care,

  Makes summerʼs welcome, thrice more wished, more rare.

  LVII

  Being your slave what should I do but tend,

  Upon the hours, and times of your desire?

  I have no precious time at all to spend;

  Nor services to do, till you require.

  Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour,

  Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,

  Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,

  When you have bid your servant once adieu;

  Nor dare I question with my jealous thought

  Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,

  But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought

  Save, where you are, how happy you make those.

  So true a fool is love, that in your will,

  Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.

  LVIII

  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 to crave,

  Being your vassal, bound to stay your leisure!

  O! let me suffer, being at your beck,

  The imprisonʼd absence of your liberty;

  And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check,

  Without accusing you of injury.

  Be where you list, your charter is so strong

  That you yourself may privilage your time

  To what you will; to you it doth belong

  Yourself to pardon of self-doing crime.

  I am to wait, though waiting so be hell,

  Not blame your pleasure be it ill or well.

  LIX

  If there be nothing new, but that which is

  Hath been before, how are our brains beguilʼd,

  Which labouring for invention bear amiss

  The second burthen of a former child!

  O! that record could with a backward look,

  Even of five hundred courses of the sun,

  Show me your image in some antique book,

  Since mind at first in character was done!

  That I might see what the old world could say

  To this composed wonder of your frame;

  Whʼr we are mended, or whʼr better they,

  Or whether revolution be the same.

  O! sure I am the wits of former days,

  To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

  LX

  Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

  So do our minutes hasten to their end;

  Each changing place with that which goes before,

  In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

  Nativity, once in the main of light,

  Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crownʼd,

  Crooked eclipses ʼgainst his glory fight,

  And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

  Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth

  And delves the parallels in beautyʼs brow,

  Feeds on the rarities of natureʼs truth,

  And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:

  And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand.

  Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

  LXI

  Is it thy will, thy image should keep open

  My heavy eyelids to the weary night?

  Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,

  While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?

  Is it thy spirit that thou sendʼst from thee

  So far from home into my deeds to pry,

  To find out shames and idle hours in me,

  The scope and tenure of thy jealousy?

  O, no! thy love, though much, is not so great:

  It is my love that keeps mine eye awake:

  Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,

  To play the watchman ever for thy sake:

  For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,

  From me far off, with others all too near.

  LXII

  Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye

  And all my soul, and all my every part;

  And for this sin there is no remedy,

  It is so grounded inward in my heart.

  Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,

  No shape so true, no truth of such account;

  And for myself mine own worth do define,

  As I all other in all worths surmount.

  But when my glass shows me myself indeed

  Beated and choppʼd with tanned antiquity,

  Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;

  Self so self-loving were iniquity.

  ʼTis thee,—myself,—that for myself I praise,

  Painting my age with beauty of thy days.

  LXIII

  Against my love shall be as I am now,

  With Timeʼs injurious hand crushʼd and oʼerworn;

  When hours have drainʼd his blood and fillʼd his brow

  With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn

  Hath travellʼd on to ageʼs steepy night;

  And all those beauties whereof now heʼs king

  Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight,

  Stealing away the treasure of his spring;

  For such a time do I no
w fortify

  Against confounding ageʼs cruel knife,

  That he shall never cut from memory

  My sweet loveʼs beauty, though my loverʼs life:

  His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,

  And they shall live, and he in them still green.

  LXIV

  When I have seen by Timeʼs fell hand defacʼd

  The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;

  When sometime lofty towers I see down-razʼd,

  And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;

  When I have seen the hungry ocean gain

  Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,

  And the firm soil win of the watery main,

  Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;

  When I have seen such interchange of state,

  Or state itself confounded, to decay;

  Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate—

  That Time will come and take my love away.

  This thought is as a death which cannot choose

  But weep to have, that which it fears to lose.

  LXV

  Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,

  But sad mortality oʼersways their power,

  How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,

  Whose action is no stronger than a flower?

  O! how shall summerʼs honey breath hold out,

  Against the wrackful siege of battering days,

  When rocks impregnable are not so stout,

  Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays?

  O fearful meditation! where, alack,

  Shall Timeʼs best jewel from Timeʼs chest lie hid?

  Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?

  Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?

  O! none, unless this miracle have might,

  That in black ink my love may still shine bright.