An Anthology of Renaissance Lyrics
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- Sonnets
(complete) (M.I.T.)
- I.
FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,
- II.
When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
- III.
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
- IV.
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
- V.
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
- VI.
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
- VII.
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
- VIII.
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
- IX.
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
- X.
For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
- XI.
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest
- XII.
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
- XIII.
O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
- XIV.
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
- XV.
When I consider every thing that grows
- XVI.
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
- XVII.
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
- XVIII.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
- XIX.
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
- XX.
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
- XXI.
So is it not with me as with that Muse
- XXII.
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
- XXIII.
As an unperfect actor on the stage
- XXIV.
Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd
- XXV.
Let those who are in favour with their stars
- XXVI.
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
- XXVII.
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
- XXVIII.
How can I then return in happy plight,
- XXIX.
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
- XXX.
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
- XXXI.
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,
- XXXII.
If thou survive my well-contented day,
- XXXIII.
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
- XXXIV.
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
- XXXV.
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
- XXXVI.
Let me confess that we two must be twain,
- XXXVII.
As a decrepit father takes delight
- XXXVIII.
How can my Muse want subject to invent,
- XXXIX.
O, how thy worth with manners may I sing,
- XL.
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
- XLI.
Those petty wrongs that liberty commits,
- XLII.
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,
- XLIII.
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
- XLIV.
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
- XLV.
The other two, slight air and purging fire,
- XLVI.
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
- XLVII.
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
- XLVIII.
How careful was I, when I took my way,
- XLIX.
Against that time, if ever that time come,
- L.
How heavy do I journey on the way,
- LI.
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
- LII.
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
- LIII.
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
- LIV.
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
- LV.
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
- LVI.
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
- LVII.
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
- LVIII.
That god forbid that made me first your slave,
- LIX.
If there be nothing new, but that which is
- LX.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
- LXI.
Is it thy will thy image should keep open
- LXII.
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
- LXIII.
Against my love shall be, as I am now,
- LXIV.
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
- LXV.
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
- LXVI.
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
- LXVII.
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
- LXVIII.
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,
- LXIX.
Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
- LXX.
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
- LXXI.
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
- LXXII.
O, lest the world should task you to recite
- LXXIII.
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
- LXXIV.
But be contented: when that fell arrest
- LXXV.
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
- LXXVI.
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
- LXXVII.
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
- LXXVIII.
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
- LXXIX.
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,
- LXXX.
O, how I faint when I of you do write,
- LXXXI.
Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
- LXXXII.
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
- LXXXIII.
I never saw that you did painting need
- LXXXIV.
Who is it that says most? which can say more
- LXXXV.
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still,
- LXXXVI.
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
- LXXXVII.
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
- LXXXVIII.
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,
- LXXXIX.
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,
- XC.
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
- XCI.
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
- XCII.
But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
- XCIII.
So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
- XCIV.
They that have power to hurt and will do none,
- XCV.
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
- XCVI.
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
- XCVII.
How like a winter hath my absence been
- XCVIII.
From you have I been absent in the spring,
- XCIX.
The forward violet thus did I chide:
- C.
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
- CI.
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
- CII.
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
- CIII.
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
- CIV.
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
- CV.
Let not my love be call'd idolatry,
- CVI.
When in the chronicle of wasted time
- CVII.
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
- CVIII.
What's in the brain that ink may character
- CIX.
O, never say that I was false of heart,
- CX.
Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there
- CXI.
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
- CXII.
Your love and pity doth the impression fill
- CXIII.
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind;
- CXIV.
Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
- CXV.
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
- CXVI.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
- CXVII.
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
- CXVIII.
Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
- CXIX.
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
- CXX.
That you were once unkind befriends me now,
- CXXI.
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
- CXXII.
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
- CXXIII.
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
- CXXIV.
If my dear love were but the child of state,
- CXXV.
Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,
- CXXVI.
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
- CXXVII.
In the old age black was not counted fair,
- CXXVIII.
How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st,
- CXXIX.
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
- CXXX.
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
- CXXXI.
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
- CXXXII.
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
- CXXXIII.
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
- CXXXIV.
So, now I have confess'd that he is thine,
- CXXXV.
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'
- CXXXVI.
If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near,
- CXXXVII.
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
- CXXXVIII.
When my love swears that she is made of truth
- CXXXIX.
O, call not me to justify the wrong
- CXL.
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
- CXLI.
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
- CXLII.
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
- CXLIII.
Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch
- CXLIV.
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
- CXLV.
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
- CXLVI.
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
- CXLVII.
My love is as a fever, longing still
- CXLVIII.
O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head,
- CXLIX.
Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
- CL.
O, from what power hast thou this powerful might
- CLI.
Love is too young to know what conscience is;
- CLII.
In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
- CLIII.
Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep:
- CLIV.
The little Love-god lying once asleep
- A
Lover's Complaint (M.I.T.)
- The
Rape of Lucrece (M.I.T.)
- Venus
and Adonis (M.I.T.)
- A Funeral
Elegy by W. S. (M.I.T.)
- The
Passionate Pilgrim (Matty Farrow)
- The
Phoenix and the Turtle (Matty Farrow)
- Songs from plays
- Winter,
from Love's Labours Lost (Poets' Corner)
- Spring
from Love's Labours Lost (Poets' Corner)
- Sigh
no More, from Much Ado About Nothing (Poets' Corner)
- O mistress mine,
where are you roaming?, from Twelfth Night
(Writer's Almanac)
- Under
the Greenwood Tree, from As You Like It (Poets' Corner)
- Blow,
Blow, Thou Winter Wind, from As You Like It (Poets' Corner)
- Carpe
Diem (Poets' Corner)
- Fear
No More from Cymbeline (Poets' Corner)
- Hark!
Hark! the Lark, from Cymbeline (Poets' Corner)
- Full
Fathom Five, from The Tempest (Poets' Corner)
- Where
the Bee Sucks, There Suck I, from The Tempest (Poets' Corner)
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