William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet XCIX
The forward
violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief, whence
didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my love's
breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft
cheek for complexion dwells
In my love's veins
thou hast too grossly dy'd.
The lily I condemned
for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram
had stol'n thy hair;
The roses fearfully
on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame,
another white despair;
A third, nor red nor
white, had stol'n of both,
And to his robbery
had annex'd thy breath;
But, for his theft,
in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker
eat him up to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee.
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