William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet LXXXIII
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
That 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.
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