William Shakespeare. 1564-1616
159. Sonnets xv
1 min to read
117 words

TO me, fair friend, you never can be old; For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. Three Winters cold Have from the forests shook three Summers' pride; Three beauteous springs to yellow Autumn turn'd In process of the seasons have I seen, Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd, Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green. Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand, Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived; So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand, Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:   For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:   Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.

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William Shakespeare. 1564-1616
160. Sonnets xvi
1 min to read
110 words
Return to The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900






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