Sonnets

Sonnet 83

I never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your fair no painting set,
I found (or thought I found) you did exceed,
That barren tender of a poet’s debt:
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself being extant well might show,
How far a modern quill come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dumb,
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes,
Than both your poets can in praise devise.

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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.