RPO -- William Shakespeare : Shakespeare's Sonnets: Then let not winter's wragged hand deface

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Then let not winter's wragged hand deface
Sonnet 6

1Then let not winter's wragged hand deface

2In thee thy summer ere thou be distill'd:

3Make sweet some vial, treasure thou some place,

4With beauty's treasure ere it be self-kill'd.

5That use is not forbidden usury

6Which happies those that pay the willing loan;

7That's for thy self to breed an other thee,

8Or ten times happ'er, be it ten for one:

9Ten times thy self were happ'er than thou art.

10If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee,

11Then what could death do if thou should'st depart,

12Leaving thee living in posterity?

13 Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair

14 To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.

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Notes

1] wragged] ragged, rough. deface] spoil, make (the face) ugly.

3] vial] womb.

4] beauty's] beautits Q.

8] happ'er] happier Q.

9] happ'er] happier Q. art.] art, Q.

10] refigur'd] made another image of.

13] self-will'd,] self-will'd Q. too fair] too fair, Q.

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): b2r.
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

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Then let not winter's wragged hand defaceSonnet 6

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Then let not winter's wragged hand deface
Sonnet 6