William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609)

[Dedication]
1
From fairest creatures we desire increase
2
When fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow
3
Looke in thy glasse and tell the face thou vewest
4
Vnthrifty louelinesse, why dost thou spend
5
Those howers that with gentle worke did frame
6
Then let not winters wragged hand deface
7
Loe in the Orient when the gracious light
8
Musick to heare, why hear’st thou musick sadly?
9
Is it for feare to wet a widdowes eye
10
For shame deny that thou bear’st loue to any
11
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st
12
When I doe count the clock that tels the time
13
O that you were your selfe, but, loue, you are
14
Not from the stars do I my iudgement plucke
15
When I consider euery thing that growes
16
But wherefore do not you a mightier waie
17
Who will beleeue my verse in time to come
18
Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?
19
Deuouring time, blunt thou the Lyons pawes
20
A womans face with natures owne hande painted
21
So is it not with me as with that Muse
22
My glasse shall not perswade me I am ould
23
As an vnperfect actor on the stage
24
Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stelld
25
Let those who are in fauor with their stars
26
Lord of my loue, to whome in vassalage
27
Weary with toyle, I hast me to my bed
28
How can I then returne in happy plight
29
When in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes
30
When to the Sessions of sweet silent thought
31
Thy bosome is indeared with all hearts
32
If thou suruiue my well contented daie
33
Full many a glorious morning haue I seene
34
Why didst thou promise such a beautious day
35
No more bee greeu’d at that which thou hast done
36
Let me confesse that we two must be twaine
37
As a decrepit father takes delight
38
How can my Muse want subiect to inuent
39
Oh how thy worth with manners may I singe
40
Take all my loues, my loue, yea take them all
41
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
42
That thou hast her it is not all my griefe
43
When most I winke, then doe mine eyes best see
44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
45
The other two, slight ayre, and purging fire
46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortall warre
47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is tooke
48
How carefull was I when I tooke my way
49
Against that time (if euer that time come)
50
How heauie doe I iourney on the way
51
Thus can my loue excuse the slow offence
52
So am I as the rich whose blessed key
53
What is your substance, whereof are you made
54
Oh how much more doth beautie beautious seeme
55
Not marble, nor the guilded monuments
56
Sweet loue renew thy force, be it not said
57
Being your slaue what should I doe but tend
58
That God forbid, that made me first your slaue
59
If there bee nothing new, but that which is
60
Like as the waues make towards the pibled shore
61
Is it thy wil, thy Image should keepe open
62
Sinne of selfe-loue possesseth al mine eie
63
Against my loue shall be as I am now
64
When I haue seene by times fell hand defaced
65
Since brasse, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundlesse sea
66
Tyr’d with all these for restfull death I cry
67
Ah, wherefore with infection should he liue
68
Thus is his cheeke the map of daies out-worne
69
Those parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view
70
That thou are blam’d shall not be thy defect
71
Noe Longer mourne for me when I am dead
72
O Least the world should taske you to recite
73
That time of yeeare thou maist in me behold
74
But be contented when that fell arest
75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life
76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride
77
Thy glasse will shew thee how thy beauties were
78
So oft haue I inuok’d thee for my Muse
79
Whilst I alone did call vpon thy ayde
80
O how I faint when I of you do write
81
Or I shall live, your epitaph to make
82
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
83
I never saw that you did painting need
84
Who is it that says most? Which can say more
85
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still
86
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
87
Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing
88
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light
89
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
90
Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now
91
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
92
But do thy worst to steal thyself away
93
So shall I live, supposing thou art true
94
They that have power to hurt, and will do none
95
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
96
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
97
How like a winter hath my absence been
98
From you have I been absent in the spring
99
The forward violet thus did I chide
100
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long
101
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
102
My love is strength’ned, though more weak in seeming
103
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth
104
To me, fair friend, you never can be old
105
Let not my love be called idolatry
106
When in the chronicle of wasted time
107
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
108
What’s in the brain that ink may character
109
O never say that I was false of heart
110
Alas, ’tis true, I have gone here and there
111
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide
112
Your love and pity doth th’impression fill
113
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
114
Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you
115
Those lines that I before have writ do lie
116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
117
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
118
Like as, to make our appetites more keen
119
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
120
That you were once unkind befriends me now
121
Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
122
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
123
No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
124
If my dear love were but the child of state
125
Were’t aught to me I bore the canopy
126
O thou my lovely Boy, who in thy power
127
In the old age black was not counted fair
128
How oft when thou, my music, music play’st
129
Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame
130
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
131
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
132
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
133
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
134
So now I have confessed that he is thine
135
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will
136
If thy soul check thee that I come so near
137
Thou blind fool Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
138
When my loue sweares that she is made of truth
139
O call not me to justify the wrong
140
Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press
141
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes
142
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
143
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
144
Two loves I have, of comfort and despair
145
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
146
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
147
My love is as a fever, longing still
148
O me! What eyes hath Love put in my head
149
Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not
150
O from what power hast thou this powerful might
151
Love is too young to know what conscience is
152
In loving thee thou knowst I am forsworn
153
Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep
154
The little Love-god lying once asleep