Shakespeare's Sonnets: If there be nothing new, but that which is

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If there be nothing new but that which is,Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,Which lab'ring for invention bear amissThe second burthen of a former child?Oh that record could with a back-ward look,Ev'n of five hundreth courses of the sun,Show me your image in some antique book,Since mind at first in character was done,That I might see what the old world could sayTo this composèd wonder of your frame,Whether we're mended, or whe'er better they,Or whether revolution be the same! Oh sure I am the wits of former days To subjects worse have giv'n admiring praise.

© William Shakespeare