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William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: From fairest creatures we desire increase
Sonnet 1


              1From fairest creatures we desire increase
              2That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
              3But as the riper should by time decease,
              4His tender heir might bear his memory:
              5But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
              6Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
              7Making a famine where abundance lies,
              8Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
              9Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
            10And only herald to the gaudy spring,
            11Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
            12And tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
            13    Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
            14    To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

next poem in the collection
Shakespeare's Sonnets: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

Notes

2] That] So that.

3] riper] the older, more mature one.

4] His] Shakespeare writes to a male.

5] contracted] betrothed; reduced in size.

6] self-substantial] "Derived from one's own substance" (OED; only citation).

11] buriest] bisyllabic, elided.

12] niggarding] hoarding.

14] To eat what the grave owes the world (your body) and what you owe the world (your children).


Online text copyright © 2012, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): b1r.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/21*1:2008/8/21*1:2008/8/21

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg


Other poems by William Shakespeare