William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet CVIII
What's in
the brain, that ink may character,
Which hath not figur'd
to thee my true spirit?
What's new to speak,
what now to register,
That may express my
love, or thy dear merit?
Nothing, sweet boy;
but yet, like prayers divine,
I must each day say
o'er the very same;
Counting no old thing
old, thou mine, I thine,
Even as when first
I hallow'd thy fair name.
So that eternal love
in love's fresh case,
Weighs not the dust
and injury of age,
Nor gives to necessary
wrinkles place,
But makes antiquity
for aye his page;
Finding the first conceit of love there bred,
Where time and outward form would show it dead.
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