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Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly, |
Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy? |
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, |
By unions married, do offend thine ear, |
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds |
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. |
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, |
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering, |
Resembling sire and child and happy mother |
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing: |
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one, |
Sings this to thee: 'thou single wilt prove none.' |
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye |
That thou consumest thyself in single life? |
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die. |
The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife; |
The world will be thy widow and still weep |
That thou no form of thee hast left behind, |
When every private widow well may keep |
By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind. |
Look, what an unthrift in the world doth spend |
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it; |
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end, |
And kept unused, the user so destroys it. |
No love toward others in that bosom sits |
That on himself such murderous shame commits. |
For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any, |
Who for thyself art so unprovident. |
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many, |
But that thou none lovest is most evident; |
For thou art so possess'd with murderous hate |
That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire. |
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate |
Which to repair should be thy chief desire. |
O, change thy thought, that I may change my mind! |
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love? |
Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind, |
Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove: |
Make thee another self, for love of me, |
That beauty still may live in thine or thee. |
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest |
In one of thine, from that which thou departest; |
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestowest |
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest. |
Herein lives wisdom, beauty and increase: |
Without this, folly, age and cold decay: |
If all were minded so, the times should cease |
And threescore year would make the world away. |
Let those whom Nature hath not made for store, |
Harsh featureless and rude, barrenly perish: |
Look, whom she best endow'd she gave the more; |
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish: |
She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby |
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die. |
When I do count the clock that tells the time, |
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; |
When I behold the violet past prime, |
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white; |
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves |
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, |
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves |
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, |
Then of thy beauty do I question make, |
That thou among the wastes of time must go, |
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake |
And die as fast as they see others grow; |
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence |
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. |
O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are |
No longer yours than you yourself here live: |
Against this coming end you should prepare, |
And your sweet semblance to some other give. |
So should that beauty which you hold in lease |
Find no determination: then you were |
Yourself again after yourself's decease, |
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. |
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, |
Which husbandry in honour might uphold |
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day |
And barren rage of death's eternal cold? |
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know |
You had a father: let your son say so. |
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck; |
And yet methinks I have astronomy, |
But not to tell of good or evil luck, |
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality; |
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, |
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind, |
Or say with princes if it shall go well, |
By oft predict that I in heaven find: |
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, |
And, constant stars, in them I read such art |
As truth and beauty shall together thrive, |
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert; |
Or else of thee this I prognosticate: |
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date. |
When I consider every thing that grows |
Holds in perfection but a little moment, |
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows |
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment; |
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