William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Against my love shall be as I am now
Sonnet 63
1Against my love shall be as I am now
2With time's injurious hand crush't and o'er-worn,
3When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow
4With lines and wrinkles, when his youthful morn
5Hath travail'd on to age's steepy night,
6And all those beauties whereof now he's king
7Are vanishing, or vanish't out of sight,
8Stealing away the treasure of his spring.
9For such a time do I now fortify
10Against confounding age's cruel knife,
11That he shall never cut from memory
12My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life.
13 His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
14 And they shall live, and he in them still green.
Notes
1] Against] Anticipating when.
3] fill'd] possibly punning on "(de)filed."
5] steepy] high, precipitous, threatening a fall.
12] though my lover's life] though (he may cut from memory) my lover's life.
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): e2r.
First publication date:
1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/24
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
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