William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet
CIV
To me, fair
friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when
first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty
still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests
shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs
to yellow autumn turn'd,
In process of the
seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes
in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw
you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty
like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure,
and no pace perceiv'd;
So your sweet hue,
which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine
eye may be deceiv'd:
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
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