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Representative Poetry Online, edition 6.0, is a web anthology of 4,800 poems in English and French by over 700 poets spanning 1400 years.  more about RPO

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare's Sonnets: O that you were your self, but love you are

Sonnet 13

Shakespeare, William (1564 - 1616)
1O that you were your self, but love you are
2No longer yours than you your self here live;
3Against this coming end you should prepare,
4And your sweet semblance to some other give.
5So should that beauty which you hold in lease
6Find no determination, then you were
7Your self again after your self's decease,
8When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
9Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
10Which husbandry in honour might uphold,
11Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
12And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
13    O none but unthrifts, dear my love you know;
14    You had a father, let your son say so.

Notes

2] You are no more yourself than you live here. Back to Line
6] determination] end. Back to Line
7] Your] You Q. Back to Line
9] so fair a house] his family, and the lodging that is the beloved himself (see 10.7). Back to Line
13] unthrifts] irresponsible people, prodigals. Back to Line
14] Lord (William) Herbert succeeded as third earl of Pembroke at his father's death in January 1601. Back to Line
 What thou lovest well remains,
                  the rest is dross
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
                or is it of none?
First came the seen, then thus the palpable
    Elysium, though it were in the halls of hell,
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
Ezra Pound Pisan Cantos, LXXXI
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