English poem
Sonnet 6: Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
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. That use is not forbidden usury, Which happies those that pay the willing loan; That's for thy self to breed another thee, Or ten times happier, be it ten for one; Ten times thy self were happier than thou art, If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee: Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart, Leaving thee living in posterity? Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.
More by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 66: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
- Sonnet 67: Ah! wherefore with infection should he live
- Sonnet 68: Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
- Sonnet 69: Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
- Sonnet 70: That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect
- Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead
- Sonnet 72: O! lest the world should task you to recite
- Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold