William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet LXIII
Against my
love shall be as I am now,
With Time's injurious
hand crush'd and o'erworn;
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
vanished 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.
|