Shakespeare's Sonnets: Against my love shall be as I am now

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Against my love shall be as I am now

Sonnet 63

Original Text

SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): e2r.

2With time's injurious hand crush't and o'er-worn,
4With lines and wrinkles, when his youthful morn
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
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. Back to Line
3] fill'd] possibly punning on "(de)filed." Back to Line
5] steepy] high, precipitous, threatening a fall. Back to Line
12] though my lover's life] though (he may cut from memory) my lover's life. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Form