Shakespeare's Sonnets: O lest the world should task you to recite

Sonnet 72

Original Text

SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): e3v-e4r.

1O lest the world should task you to recite

2What merit liv'd in me that you should love

5Unless you would devise some virtuous lie

6To do more for me than mine own desert

7And hang more praise upon deceasèd I

9O lest your true love may seem false in this,

10That you for love speak well of me untrue,

11My name be buried where my body is

12And live no more to shame nor me, nor you,

13 For I am sham'd by that which I bring forth,

14 And so should you, to love things nothing worth.

3] forget] for get Q. Back to Line

4] prove] demonstrate. Back to Line

8] niggard: stingy. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

1609

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2008

Rhyme

Form