Time poems
/ page 14 of 792 /
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
© William Shakespeare
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless seaBut sad mortality o'er-sways their pow'r,How with this rage shall beauty hold a pleaWhose action is no stronger then a flow'r?O how shall summer's honey breath hold outAgainst the wrackful siege of batt'ring daysWhen rocks impregnable are not so stout,Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?O fearful meditation! where, alack,Shall time's best jewel from time's chest lie hid?Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,Or who his spoil o'er beauty can forbid? O none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
© William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dim'd,And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrim'd:But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Oh how thy worth with manners may I sing
© William Shakespeare
Oh how thy worth with manners may I singWhen thou art all the better part of me?What can mine own praise to mine own self bring,And what is't but mine own when I praise thee?Even for this, let us divided live,And our dear love lose name of single one,That by this separation I may giveThat due to thee which thou deserv'st alone
Shakespeare's Sonnets: O thou my lovely boy, who in thy pow'r
© William Shakespeare
O thou my lovely boy, who in thy pow'rDost hold time's fickle glass, his fickle hour,Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st,Thy lover's with'ring, as thy sweet self grow'st,If nature (sov'reign mistress over wrack)As thou go'st onwards still will pluck thee back,She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skillMay time disgrace, and wretched minute kill
Shakespeare's Sonnets: O never say that I was false of heart
© William Shakespeare
O never say that I was false of heart,Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul
© William Shakespeare
Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soulOf the wide world, dreaming on things to come,Can yet the lease of my true love control,Suppos'd as forfeit to a confin'd doom
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
© William Shakespeare
Not marble, nor the gilded monumentsOf princes shall out-live this pow'rful rhyme,But you shall shine more bright in these contentsThan unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time
Shakespeare's Sonnets: No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
© William Shakespeare
No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
Shakespeare's Sonnets: My love is strength'ned, though more weak in seeming
© William Shakespeare
My love is strength'ned, though more weak in seeming;I love not less, though less the show appear
Shakespeare's Sonnets: My glass shall not persuade me I am old
© William Shakespeare
My glass shall not persuade me I am oldSo long as youth and thou are of one date,But when in thee time's furrows I behold,Then look I death my days should expiate
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Look in thy glass and tell the face thou view'st
© William Shakespeare
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou view'st,Now is the time that face should form an otherWhose fresh repair, if now thou not renew'st,Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
© William Shakespeare
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,So do our minutes hasten to their end,Each changing place with that which goes before,In sequent toil all forwards do contend
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
© William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments; love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration findsOr bends with the remover to remove
Shakespeare's Sonnets: If thou survive my well-contented day
© William Shakespeare
If thou survive my well-contented day,When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover,And shalt by fortune once more re-surveyThese poor rude lines of thy deceased lover,Compare them with the bett'ring of the time,And though they be out-stripp't by every pen,Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,Exceeded by the height of happier men
Shakespeare's Sonnets: If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
© William Shakespeare
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,Injurious distance should not stop my way,For then, despite of space, I would be broughtFrom limits far remote where thou dost stay;No matter then, although my foot did standUpon the farthest earth remov'd from thee,For nimble thought can jump both sea and landAs soon as think the place where he would be
Shakespeare's Sonnets: If my dear love were but the child of state
© William Shakespeare
If my dear love were but the child of state,It might for fortune's bastard be unfather'dAs subject to time's love, or to time's hate,Weeds among weeds, or flow'rs with flow'rs gather'd
Shakespeare's Sonnets: I grant thou wert not married to my muse
© William Shakespeare
I grant thou wert not married to my museAnd therefore may'st without attaint o'er-lookThe dedicated words which writers useOf their fair subject, blessing every book
Shakespeare's Sonnets: How like a winter hath my absence been
© William Shakespeare
How like a winter hath my absence beenFrom thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,What old December's bareness every where!And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,The teeming autumn big with rich increase,Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,Like widowed wombs after their lord's decease;Yet this abundant issue seem'd to meBut hope of orphans, and un-fathered fruit,For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,And thou away, the very birds are mute, Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer, That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near
Shakespeare's Sonnets: How heavy do I journey on the way
© William Shakespeare
How heavy do I journey on the way,When what I seek (my weary travel's end)Doth teach that ease and that repose to say"Thus far the miles are measur'd from thy friend
Shakespeare's Sonnets: How can my muse want subject to invent
© William Shakespeare
How can my muse want subject to inventWhile thou dost breathe that pour'st into my verseThine own sweet argument, too excellentFor every vulgar paper to rehearse?Oh give thy self the thanks if aught in meWorthy perusal stand against thy sight,For who's so dumb that cannot write to theeWhen thou thy self dost give invention light?Be thou the tenth muse, ten times more in worthThan those old nine which rhymers invocate,And he that calls on thee, let him bring forthEternal numbers to out-live long date
