POEM OF THE DAYRead full poem →
ART & LITERATURE
Classic poems • Cosmo originalsPoetry
COSMO PUBLISHER
Latest Poetry
ART & LITERATURE
THE SOLITARY REAPER
Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself; Stop here, or gently pass! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE
Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS
She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
LUCY GRAY
Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray: And, when I crossed the wild, I chanced to see at break of day The solitary child. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING
I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
TINTERN ABBEY
Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft inland murmur.—Once again n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!' So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
HOLY THURSDAY
'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, The children walking two & two, in red & blue & green, Grey headed beadles walk’d before with wands as white as snow, Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames’ waters flow. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE SICK ROSE
O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
A POISON TREE
I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
LONDON
I wander thro’ each charter’d street, Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE LAMB
Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee, Gave thee life & bid thee feed, By the stream & o’er the mead; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY
The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the Ocean, The winds of Heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ENGLAND IN 1819
An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King— Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring— Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE CLOUD
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
TO NIGHT
Swiftly walk o'er the western wave, Spirit of Night! Out of the misty eastern cave, Where, all the long and lone daylight, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
MONT BLANC
The everlasting universe of things Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, Now dark—now glittering—now reflecting gloom— Now lending splendour, where from secret springs n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ODE TO THE WEST WIND
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ADONAIS
I weep for Adonais—he is dead! Oh, weep for Adonais! though our tears Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head! And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
TO A SKYLARK
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert— That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES
St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass, And silent was the flock in woolly fold: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
WHEN I HAVE FEARS
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
TO THE NIGHT
Swiftly walk over the western wave, Spirit of Night! Out of the misty eastern cave, Where, all the long and lone daylight, thou art hid, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd from the Lake, And no birds sing. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
BRIGHT STAR
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ODE ON MELANCHOLY
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ODE ON A GRECIAN URN
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
TO AUTUMN
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE CONQUEROR WORM
Lo! 'tis a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ULALUME
The skies they were ashen and sober; The leaves they were crisped and seared— It was night in the lonesome October Of my most immemorial year; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
EL DORADO
Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE BELLS
Hear the sledges with the bells— Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow— You are not wrong, who deem n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
TO HELEN
Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, way-worn wanderer bore n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
ANNABEL LEE
It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 154
The little Love-god lying once asleep Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand Whilst many nymphs that vow'd chaste life to keep Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 153
Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep: A maid of Dian's this advantage found, And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep In a cold valley-fountain of that ground; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 152
In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn In vowing new hate after new love bearing. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 151
Love is too young to know what conscience is; Yet who knows not conscience is born of love? Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 150
O, from what power hast thou this powerful might With insufficiency my heart to sway? To make me give the lie to my true sight And swear that brightness doth not grace the day? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 149
Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not When I against myself with thee partake? Do I not think on thee, when I forgot Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 148
O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head Which have no correspondence with true sight! Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled, That censures falsely what they see aright? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 147
My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill The uncertain sickly appetite to please. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 146
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth [ ] these rebel powers that thee array; Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 145
Those lips that Love's own hand did make Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate' To me that languish'd for her sake; But when she saw my woeful state, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 144
Two loves I have of comfort and despair Which like two spirits do suggest me still: The better angel is a man right fair The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 143
Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch One of her feather'd creatures broke away Sets down her babe and makes an swift dispatch In pursuit of the thing she would have stay, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 142
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving: O, but with mine compare thou thine own state And thou shalt find it merits not reproving; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 141
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes For they in thee a thousand errors note; But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise Who in despite of view is pleased to dote; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 140
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain; Lest sorrow lend me words and words express The manner of my pity-wanting pain. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 139
O, call not me to justify the wrong That thy unkindness lays upon my heart Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue; Use power with power and slay me not by art. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 138
When my love swears that she is made of truth I do believe her, though I know she lies That she might think me some untutor'd youth Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 137
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes That they behold, and see not what they see? They know what beauty is, see where it lies Yet what the best is take the worst to be. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 136
If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy 'Will,' And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there; Thus far for love my love-suit, sweet, fulfil. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 135
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,' And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in overplus; More than enough am I that vex thee still To thy sweet will making addition thus. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 134
So, now I have confess'd that he is thine And I myself am mortgaged to thy will Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 133
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan For that deep wound it gives my friend and me! Is't not enough to torture me alone But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 132
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me, Knowing thy heart torments me with disdain Have put on black and loving mourners be Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 131
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel; For well thou know'st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 129
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 128
How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st, Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 127
In the old age black was not counted fair Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name; But now is black beauty's successive heir, And beauty slander'd with a bastard shame: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 126
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour; Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 125
Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy With my extern the outward honouring, Or laid great bases for eternity, Which prove more short than waste or ruining? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 124
If my dear love were but the child of state It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd' As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 123
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing novel, nothing strange; They are but dressings of a former sight. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 122
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain Full character'd with lasting memory, Which shall above that idle rank remain Beyond all date, even to eternity; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 121
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd, When not to be receives reproach of being, And the just pleasure lost which is so deem'd Not by our feeling but by others' seeing: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 120
That you were once unkind befriends me now, And for that sorrow which I then did feel Needs must I under my transgression bow, Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 119
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw myself to win! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 118
Like as, to make our appetites more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge, As, to prevent our maladies unseen, We sicken to shun sickness when we purge, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 117
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all Wherein I should your great deserts repay Forgot upon your dearest love to call Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 115
Those lines that I before have writ do lie Even those that said I could not love you dearer: Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 114
Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery? Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true, And that your love taught it this alchemy, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 113
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind; And that which governs me to go about Doth part his function and is partly blind, Seems seeing, but effectually is out; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 112
Your love and pity doth the impression fill Which vulgar scandal stamp'd upon my brow; For what care I who calls me well or ill, So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 111
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, That did not better for my life provide Than public means which public manners breeds. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 110
Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there And made myself a motley to the view, Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear, Made old offences of affections new; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 109
O, never say that I was false of heart, Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify. As easy might I from myself depart As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 108
What's in the brain that ink may character Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit? What's new to speak, what new to register, That may express my love or thy dear merit? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 107
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, Can yet the lease of my true love control, Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 106
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, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 105
Let not my love be call'd idolatry, Nor my beloved as an idol show, Since all alike my songs and praises be To one, of one, still such, and ever so. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 104
To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold Have from the forests shook three summers' pride, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 103
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth, That having such a scope to show her pride The argument all bare is of more worth Than when it hath my added praise beside! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 102
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear: That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming The owner's tongue doth publish every where. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 101
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed? Both truth and beauty on my love depends; So dost thou too, and therein dignified. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 100
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long To speak of that which gives thee all thy might? Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song, Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 99
The forward violet thus did I chide: Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, If not from my love's breath? The purple pride Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 98
From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing, That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 97
How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December's bareness every where! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 96
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness; Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport; Both grace and faults are loved of more and less; Thou makest faults graces that to thee resort. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 95
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose, Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name! O, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 94
They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 93
So shall I live, supposing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; so love's face May still seem love to me, though alter'd new; Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 92
But do thy worst to steal thyself away, For term of life thou art assured mine, And life no longer than thy love will stay, For it depends upon that love of thine. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 91
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, Some in their wealth, some in their bodies' force, Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill, Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 90
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross, Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow, And do not drop in for an after-loss: Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scaped this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquered woe; Give […]
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 89
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, And I will comment upon that offence; Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt, Against thy reasons making no defence. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 88
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light, And place my merit in the eye of scorn, Upon thy side against myself I'll fight, And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 87
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know'st thy estimate: The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 86
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, Bound for the prize of all too precious you, That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse, Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 85
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still, While comments of your praise, richly compiled, Reserve their character with golden quill And precious phrase by all the Muses filed. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 84
Who is it that says most? which can say more Than this rich praise, that you alone are you? In whose confine immured is the store Which should example where your equal grew. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 83
I never saw that you did painting need And therefore to your fair no painting set; I found, or thought I found, you did exceed The barren tender of a poet's debt; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 82
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook The dedicated words which writers use Of their fair subject, blessing every book n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 81
Or I shall live your epitaph to make, Or you survive when I in earth am rotten; From hence your memory death cannot take, Although in me each part will be forgotten. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 80
O, how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might, To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 79
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid, My verse alone had all thy gentle grace, But now my gracious numbers are decay'd And my sick Muse doth give another place. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 78
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse And found such fair assistance in my verse As every alien pen hath got my use And under thee their poesy disperse. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 77
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste; The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear, And of this book this learning mayst thou taste. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride, So far from variation or quick change? Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found methods and to compounds strange? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground; And for the peace of you I hold such strife As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 74
But be contented: when that fell arrest Without all bail shall carry me away My life hath in this line some interest, Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 72
O, lest the world should task you to recite What merit lived in me, that you should love After my death, dear love, forget me quite, For you in me can nothing worthy prove; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 71
No longer mourn for me when I am dead Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 70
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, For slander's mark was ever yet the fair; The ornament of beauty is suspect, A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 69
Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend; All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due, Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 68
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, When beauty lived and died as flowers do now, Before the bastard signs of fair were born, Or durst inhabit on a living brow; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 67
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live, And with his presence grace impiety, That sin by him advantage should achieve And lace itself with his society? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 66
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, As, to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 65
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'er-sways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 64
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced The rich proud cost of outworn buried age; When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 63
Against my love shall be, as I am now, With Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'er-worn; When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 62
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye And all my soul and all my every part; And for this sin there is no remedy, It is so grounded inward in my heart. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 61
Is it thy will thy image should keep open My heavy eyelids to the weary night? Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken, While shadows like to thee do mock my sight? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 60
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. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 59
If there be nothing new, but that which is Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled, Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss The second burden of a former child! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 58
That god forbid that made me first your slave, I should in thought control your times of pleasure, Or at your hand the account of hours to crave, Being your vassal, bound to stay your leisure! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 57
Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 56
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said Thy edge should blunter be than appetite, Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd, To-morrow sharpen'd in his former might: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 55
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 54
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 53
What is your substance, whereof are you made, That millions of strange shadows on you tend? Since every one hath, every one, one shade, And you, but one, can every shadow lend. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 52
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure, The which he will not every hour survey, For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 51
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed: From where thou art why should I haste me thence? Till I return, of posting is no need. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 50
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 measured from thy friend!' n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 49
Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Call'd to that audit by advised respects; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 48
How careful was I, when I took my way, Each trifle under truest bars to thrust, That to my use it might unused stay From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust! n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, And each doth good turns now unto the other: When that mine eye is famish'd for a look, Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war How to divide the conquest of thy sight; Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar, My heart mine eye the freedom of that right. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 45
The other two, slight air and purging fire, Are both with thee, wherever I abide; The first my thought, the other my desire, These present-absent with swift motion slide. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, Injurious distance should not stop my way; For then despite of space I would be brought, From limits far remote where thou dost stay. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 43
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected; But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, And darkly bright are bright in dark directed. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 42
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief, And yet it may be said I loved her dearly; That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief, A loss in love that touches me more nearly. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 41
Those petty wrongs that liberty commits, When I am sometime absent from thy heart, Thy beauty and thy years full well befits, For still temptation follows where thou art. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 40
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all; What hast thou then more than thou hadst before? No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call; All mine was thine before thou hadst this more. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 39
O, how thy worth with manners may I sing, When 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? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 38
How can my Muse want subject to invent, While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse Thine own sweet argument, too excellent For every vulgar paper to rehearse? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 37
As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth, So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite, Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 36
Let me confess that we two must be twain, Although our undivided loves are one: So shall those blots that do with me remain Without thy help by me be borne alone. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 35
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done: Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud; Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 34
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, And make me travel forth without my cloak, To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way, Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 33
Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 32
If thou survive my well-contented day, When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover, And shalt by fortune once more re-survey These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 31
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts, Which I by lacking have supposed dead, And there reigns love and all love's loving parts, And all those friends which I thought buried. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state And trouble deal heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse my fate, n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 28
How can I then return in happy plight, That am debarr'd the benefit of rest? When day's oppression is not eased by night, But day by night, and night by day, oppress'd? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head, To work my mind, when body's work's expired: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 26
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit, To thee I send this written embassage, To witness duty, not to show my wit: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 25
Let those who are in favour with their stars Of public honour and proud titles boast, Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars, Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 24
Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd Thy beauty's form in table of my heart; My body is the frame wherein 'tis held, And perspective it is the painter's art. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 23
As an unperfect actor on the stage Who with his fear is put besides his part, Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage, Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 22
My glass shall not persuade me I am old, So 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. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 21
So is it not with me as with that Muse Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse, Who heaven itself for ornament doth use And every fair with his fair doth rehearse n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 20
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change, as is false women's fashion; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 19
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 18
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: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 17
Who will believe my verse in time to come, If it were fill'd with your most high deserts? Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb Which hides your life and shows not half your parts. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 16
But wherefore do not you a mightier way Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time? And fortify yourself in your decay With means more blessed than my barren rhyme? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 15
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; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 14
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; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 13
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. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 12
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; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 11
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. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 10
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; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 9
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; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 8
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy. Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly, Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy? n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 7
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, Serving with looks his sacred majesty; n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 6
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd: Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place With beauty's treasure, ere it be self-kill'd. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 5
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell, Will play the tyrants to the very same And that unfair which fairly doth excel: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 4
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 3
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 2
When forty winters shall beseige thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held: n
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
SONNET 1
FROM fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet […]
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality. n We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility – n We passed the School, where Children strove […]
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
A RED, RED ROSE
O my Luve is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June; O my Luve is like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. n So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry. n […]
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
THE TYGER
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? n In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? n And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist […]
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, […]
Read story →ART & LITERATURE
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; n
Read story →
ART & LITERATURE
An Untested Truth
AN UNTESTED TRUTH O my soulmate You think it is easy To cuddle love Deep within us
Read story →