Literature For All

Sonnet 83 - I never saw that you did painting need, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Sonnet 83 I never saw that you did painting need

I never saw that you did painting need

And therefore to your fair no painting set;

I found, or thought I found, you did exceed

The barren tender of a poet's debt;

And therefore have I slept in your report,

That you yourself being extant well might show

How far a modern quill doth come too short,

Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.

This silence for my sin you did impute,

Which shall be most my glory, being dumb;

For I impair not beauty being mute,

When others would give life and bring a tomb.

There lives more life in one of your fair eyes

Than both your poets can in praise devise.

Sonnet 83 I never saw that you did painting need, by William Shakespeare .

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

William Shakespeare is one of greatest authors , Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays, and Shakespeare's plays are considered the most important literary works.

List the works of William Shakespeare. , The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

Sonnet 82 - I grant thou wert not married to my muse, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:39:00 +0000

I grant thou wert not married to my muse

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse

And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook

The dedicated words which writers use

Of their fair subject, blessing every book

Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,

Finding thy worth a limit past my praise,

And therefore art enforced to seek anew

Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days

And do so, love; yet when they have devised

What strained touches rhetoric can lend,

Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized

In true plain words by thy true-telling friend;

And their gross painting might be better used

Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abused.

Sonnet 82 I grant thou wert not married to my muse.

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

William Shakespeare is one of greatest authors , Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays, and Shakespeare's plays are considered the most important literary works.

List the works of William Shakespeare. , The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

Sonnet 81 - Or I shall live your epitaph to make, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:08:00 +0000

Sonnet 81 Or I shall live your epitaph to make

Or I shall live your epitaph to make,

Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;

From hence your memory death cannot take,

Although in me each part will be forgotten.

Your name from hence immortal life shall have,

Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:

The earth can yield me but a common grave,

When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.

Your monument shall be my gentle verse,

Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read,

And tongues to be your being shall rehearse

When all the breathers of this world are dead;

You still shall live--such virtue hath my pen

Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.

Sonnet 81 Or I shall live your epitaph to make, by William Shakespeare .

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 80 - O how I faint when I of you do write, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:58:00 +0000

Sonnet 80 O how I faint when I of you do write

O, how I faint when I of you do write,

Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,

And in the praise thereof spends all his might,

To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame!

But since your worth, wide as the ocean is,

The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,

My saucy bark inferior far to his

On your broad main doth wilfully appear.

Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,

Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;

Or being wreck'd, I am a worthless boat,

He of tall building and of goodly pride:

Then if he thrive and I be cast away,

The worst was this; my love was my decay.

O how I faint when I of you do write, Sonnet 80 by William Shakespeare.

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 79 - Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Sonnet 79 Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid.

Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,

My verse alone had all thy gentle grace,

But now my gracious numbers are decay'd

And my sick Muse doth give another place.

I grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument

Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,

Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent

He robs thee of and pays it thee again.

He lends thee virtue and he stole that word

From thy behavior; beauty doth he give

And found it in thy cheek; he can afford

No praise to thee but what in thee doth live.

Then thank him not for that which he doth say,

Since what he owes thee thou thyself dost pay.

Sonnet 79 - Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid, by William Shakespeare.

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 78 - So oft have I invoked thee for my muse, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:48:00 +0000

Sonnet 78 So oft have I invoked thee for my muse.

So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse

And found such fair assistance in my verse

As every alien pen hath got my use

And under thee their poesy disperse.

Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing

And heavy ignorance aloft to fly

Have added feathers to the learned's wing

And given grace a double majesty.

Yet be most proud of that which I compile,

Whose influence is thine and born of thee:

In others' works thou dost but mend the style,

And arts with thy sweet graces graced be;

But thou art all my art and dost advance

As high as learning my rude ignorance.

Sonnet 78 So oft have I invoked thee for my muse, by William Shakespeare.

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 77 - Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:41:00 +0000

Sonnet 77 Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear

Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know
Time's thievish progress to eternity.
Look, what thy memory can not contain
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, deliver'd from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.

Sonnet 77 Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, by William Shakespeare.

Read Shakespeare's sonnets online.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 76 - Why is my verse so barren of new pride, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:36:00 +0000

Sonnet 76 Why is my verse so barren of new pride.

Why is my verse so barren of new pride,

So far from variation or quick change?

Why with the time do I not glance aside

To new-found methods and to compounds strange?

Why write I still all one, ever the same,

And keep invention in a noted weed,

That every word doth almost tell my name,

Showing their birth and where they did proceed?

O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,

And you and love are still my argument;

So all my best is dressing old words new,

Spending again what is already spent:

For as the sun is daily new and old,

So is my love still telling what is told.

Sonnet 76 - Why is my verse so barren of new pride, by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 75 - So are you to my thoughts as food to life, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:24:00 +0000

Sonnet 75 So are you to my thoughts as food to life.

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,

Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;

And for the peace of you I hold such strife

As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found;

Now proud as an enjoyer and anon

Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure,

Now counting best to be with you alone,

Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure;

Sometime all full with feasting on your sight

And by and by clean starved for a look;

Possessing or pursuing no delight,

Save what is had or must from you be took.

Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,

Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

Sonnet 75 - So are you to my thoughts as food to life, by William Shakespeare .

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 74 - But be contented when that fell arrest, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:38:00 +0000

Sonnet 74 But be contented when that fell arrest

But be contented: when that fell arrest

Without all bail shall carry me away,

My life hath in this line some interest,

Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.

When thou reviewest this, thou dost review

The very part was consecrate to thee:

The earth can have but earth, which is his due;

My spirit is thine, the better part of me:

So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,

The prey of worms, my body being dead,

The coward conquest of a wretch's knife,

Too base of thee to be remembered.

The worth of that is that which it contains,

And that is this, and this with thee remains.

Sonnet 74 But be contented when that fell arrest, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 73 - That time of year thou mayst in me behold, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Sonnet 73 That time of year thou mayst in me behold.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed whereon it must expire

Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Sonnet 73 - That time of year thou mayst in me behold, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 72 - O lest the world should task you to recite, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Sonnet 72 O lest the world should task you to recite

O, lest the world should task you to recite
What merit lived in me, that you should love
After my death, dear love, forget me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy prove;
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,
To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I
Than niggard truth would willingly impart:
O, lest your true love may seem false in this,
That you for love speak well of me untrue,
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to love things nothing worth.

Sonnet 72 - O lest the world should task you to recite, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 71 - No longer mourn for me when I am dead, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:08:00 +0000

Sonnet 71 No longer mourn for me when I am dead

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.

Sonnet 71 No longer mourn for me when I am dead, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 70 - That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:06:00 +0000

Sonnet 70 That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect.

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,

For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;

The ornament of beauty is suspect,

A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.

So thou be good, slander doth but approve

Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time;

For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,

And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.

Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young days,

Either not assail'd or victor being charged;

Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,

To tie up envy evermore enlarged:

If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show,

Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.

Sonnet 70 That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, by William Shakespeare .

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 69 - Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:03:00 +0000

Sonnet 69 Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view.

Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view

Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;

All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,

Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend.

Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd;

But those same tongues that give thee so thine own

In other accents do this praise confound

By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.

They look into the beauty of thy mind,

And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;

Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,

To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:

But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,

The solve is this, that thou dost common grow.

Sonnet 69 Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 68 - Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:39:00 +0000

Sonnet 68 Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn.

Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,

When beauty lived and died as flowers do now,

Before the bastard signs of fair were born,

Or durst inhabit on a living brow;

Before the golden tresses of the dead,

The right of sepulchres, were shorn away,

To live a second life on second head;

Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay:

In him those holy antique hours are seen,

Without all ornament, itself and true,

Making no summer of another's green,

Robbing no old to dress his beauty new;

And him as for a map doth Nature store,

To show false Art what beauty was of yore.

Sonnet 68 Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, by William Shakespeare .

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 67 - Ah wherefore with infection should he live, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:31:00 +0000

Sonnet 67 Ah wherefore with infection should he live.

Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
And with his presence grace impiety,
That sin by him advantage should achieve
And lace itself with his society?
Why should false painting imitate his cheek
And steal dead seeing of his living hue?
Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
Roses of shadow, since his rose is true?
Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt is,
Beggar'd of blood to blush through lively veins?
For she hath no exchecker now but his,
And, proud of many, lives upon his gains.
O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had
In days long since, before these last so bad.

Sonnet 67 Ah wherefore with infection should he live, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 66 - Tired with all these for restful death I cry, nor boundless sea, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:15:00 +0000

Sonnet 66 Tired with all these for restful death I cry.

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,

As, to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,

And strength by limping sway disabled,

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly doctor-like controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill:

Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,

Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

William Shakespeare Sonnet 66 Tired with all these for restful death I cry, nor boundless sea.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 65 - Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:55:00 +0000

Sonnet 65 Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea.

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful 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 Time's best jewel from Time's 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.

William Shakespeare Sonnet 65 Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 64 - When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:12:00 +0000

Sonnet 64 When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced.

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed
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.

Sonnet 64 When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 63 - Against my love shall be as I am now, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:01:00 +0000

Sonnet 63 Against my love shall be as I am now

Against my love shall be, as I am now,
With Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'er-worn;
When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow
With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn
Hath travell'd on to age's steepy night,
And all those beauties whereof now he's king
Are vanishing or vanish'd out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
For such a time do I now fortify
Against confounding age's cruel knife,
That he shall never cut from memory
My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life:
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
And they shall live, and he in them still green.

Sonnet 63: Against my love shall be as I am now, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 62 - Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:40:00 +0000

Sonnet 62 Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye.

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 chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.

Sonnet 62 - Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 61 - Is it thy will thy image should keep open, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:31:00 +0000

Sonnet 61 Is it thy will thy image should keep open.

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 send'st from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenor 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.

Sonnet 61 - Is it thy will thy image should keep open, by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 60 - Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:31:00 +0000

Sonnet 60 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

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 crown'd,

Crooked elipses 'gainst 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 beauty's brow,

Feeds on the rarities of nature's 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.

Sonnet 60 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, by William Shakespeare .

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 59 - If there be nothing new, but that which is, by William Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:13:00 +0000

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)

Sonnet 59 If there be nothing new, but that which is

If there be nothing new, but that which is

Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,

Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss

The second burden 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;

Whether we are mended, or whether better they,

Or whether revolution be the same.

O, sure I am, the wits of former days

To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

Sonnet 59 - If there be nothing new, but that which is, by William Shakespeare.

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