Sonnets

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 worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more
Entitled in parts, do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
Whilst that this shadow such substance give,
That I in abundance am sufficed,
And by a part of all glory live:
Look what is best, that best I wish in ,
This wish I have, then ten times happy me.

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See its words in the cloud.

Modern spelling for reading. The edition is public domain in the United States. Edition source.