Shakespeare's Sonnets: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend

Sonnet 4

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): b1v.
1Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
2Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy?
3Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
4And being frank she lends to those are free:
5Then beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
6The bounteous largess giv'n thee to give?
7Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
8So great a sum of sums yet can'st not live?
9For having traffic with thy self alone,
10Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive;
11Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
12What acceptable audit can'st thou leave?
13    Thy unus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee,
14    Which usèd lives th' executor to be.

Notes

1] Unthrifty] wasteful, profligate. Back to Line
4] those are free] those who are generous, noble. Back to Line
5] beauteous] disyllabic here. niggard] miserly. Back to Line
6] largess] liberality. giv'n: given Q. Back to Line
8] live] subsist. Back to Line
9] traffic] trade, business. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet