RPO -- William Shakespeare : Shakespeare's Sonnets: So is it not with me as with that muse

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: So is it not with me as with that muse
Sonnet 21

1So is it not with me as with that muse,

2Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse,

3Who heav'n it self for ornament doth use,

4And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,

5Making a couplement of proud compare,

6With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,

7With April's first-born flowers and all things rare

8That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.

9O let me true in love but truly write,

10And then believe me, my love is as fair

11As any mother's child, though not so bright

12As those gold candles fix't in heaven's air:

13 Let them say more that like of hear-say well,

14 I will not praise that purpose not to sell.

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Shakespeare's Sonnets: A woman's face with nature's own hand painted next poem in the collection
Shakespeare's Sonnets: My glass shall not persuade me I am old

Notes

3] heav'n] heauen Q.

4] And compliments his fair beloved by comparing him to every fair thing.

5] compare] comparison.

8] rondure] roundness (first citation). hems] encircles.

14] Shakespeare has no intention of selling his beloved and, for that reason, will not praise him.

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): c1r.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/22

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg

Other poems by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: So is it not with me as with that museSonnet 21

Shakespeare's Sonnets: So is it not with me as with that muse
Sonnet 21