English poem
Sonnet 69: Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
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. Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd; But those same tongues, that give thee so thine own, In other accents do this praise confound By seeing farther than the eye hath shown. They look into the beauty of thy mind, And that in guess they measure by thy deeds; Then--churls--their thoughts, although their eyes were kind, To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds: But why thy odour matcheth not thy show, The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
More by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
- 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 6: Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
- 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