English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 129. One Hundred and Sixth Sonnet |
| | | William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
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| WHEN in the chronicle of wasted time | |
| I see descriptions of the fairest wights, | |
| And beauty making beautiful old rhyme | |
| In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights; | |
| Then in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best | 5 |
| Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, | |
| I see their antique pen would have exprest | |
| Ev’n such a beauty as you master now. | |
| So all their praises are but prophecies | |
| Of this our time, all you prefiguring; | 10 |
| And for they look’d but with divining eyes, | |
| They had not skill enough your worth to sing: | |
| For we, which now behold these present days, | |
| Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise. | |
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