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William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
Sonnet 2


              1When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
              2And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
              3Thy youth's proud livery, so gaz'd on now,
              4Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held:
              5Then being askt where all thy beauty lies,
              6Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
              7To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes
              8Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
              9How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use
            10If thou could'st answer, "This fair child of mine
            11Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,"
            12Proving his beauty by succession thine.
            13    This were to be new made when thou art old,
            14    And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

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Shakespeare's Sonnets: Look in thy glass and tell the face thou view'st

Notes

1] forty winters: Shakespeare dates a man "old" (13) at 40 years, that is, if speaking for himself, his age in 1604.

3] livery] clothes or distinctive outfit supplied to a lord's servants so to identify their household and function. Prosody makes the word trisyllabic.

4] totter'd] tattered. weed] wild plant; clothes.

6] lusty] delightful.

8] An eleven-syllable line: perhaps originally "Were all-eating shame ..." thriftless: worthless.

11] sum my count] give my reckoning. make my old excuse] extenuate my old age.

12] succession] his child lawfully inherits his former beauty.

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-b1v.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/21

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg

Other poems by William Shakespeare

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