William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet LXXXII
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 devis'd,
What strained touches
rhetoric can lend,
Thou truly fair, wert
truly sympathiz'd
In true plain words,
by thy true-telling friend;
And their gross painting might be better us'd
Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abus'd.
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