William Shakespeare. 1564-1616
145. Sonnets i
1 min to read
114 words

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 thy eternal Summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest:   So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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William Shakespeare. 1564-1616
146. Sonnets ii
1 min to read
114 words
Return to The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900






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