Shakespeare's Sonnets: To me, fair friend, you never can be old

Shakespeare's Sonnets: To me, fair friend, you never can be old

Sonnet 104

1To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
2For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
3Such seems your beauty still: three winters cold
4Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
5Three beaut'ous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
6In process of the seasons have I seen.
7Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd
8Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green.
9Ah yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
10Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv'd,
11So your sweet hue, which me thinks still doth stand,
12Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived,
13    For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,
14    Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.

Notes

5] beaut'ous] beautious Q. Back to Line
8] which] who (the beloved). Back to Line
10] Steal] leave by stealth. figure] appearance. Back to Line
13] unbred] unborn (OED, ppl. a., 1 [first citation])--that is, future time. Back to Line
Publication Notes
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): g2v.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet