Complete SonnetsWithout a doubt the most important of Shakespeare's nondramatic works, the sonnets have engendered reams of scholarly disputation as to the identity of "the dark lady" and the "lovely boy" to whom the vast majority are addressed. Controversy has also long simmered over the full name of the "W.H." of the dedication. What is not in dispute is the superior quality of these lyrics, which rank among the finest sonnets ever written — in any language. |
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... doth lend , And , being frank , she lends to those are free . Then , beauteous niggard , why dost thou abuse The ... doth dwell , Will play the tyrants to the very same , And that unfair which fairly doth excel ; For never - resting time ...
... Doth homage to his new - appearing sight , Serving with looks his sacred majesty ; And having climb'd the steep - up heavenly hill , Resembling strong youth in his middle age , Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still , Attending on his ...
... doth spend Shifts but his place , for still the world enjoys it : But beauty's waste hath in the world an end , And kept unus'd , the user so destroys it . No love toward others in that bosom sits , That on himself such murderous shame ...
... doth use , And every fair with his fair doth rehearse ; Making a couplement of proud compare , With sun and moon , with earth and sea's rich gems , With April's first - born flowers , and all things rare That heaven's air in this huge ...
... doth daily draw my sorrows longer , And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem stronger . XXIX . When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes , I all alone beweep my outcast state , And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries ...