English poem
Sonnet 1: From fairest creatures we desire increase
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, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel: Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content, And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding: Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
More by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 16: But wherefore do not you a mightier way
- Sonnet 17: Who will believe my verse in time to come
- Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
- Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws
- Sonnet 20: A woman's face with nature's own hand painted
- Sonnet 21: So is it not with me as with that Muse
- Sonnet 22: My glass shall not persuade me I am old
- Sonnet 23: As an unperfect actor on the stage