Shakespeare's Sonnets: Why did'st thou promise such a beaut'ous day
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Why did'st thou promise such a beaut'ous day
Sonnet 34
Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): c4r.
2And make me travail forth without my cloak,
3To let base clouds o'er-take me in my way,
4Hiding thy brav'ry in their rotten smoke?
6To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
7For no man well of such a salve can speak,
8That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
9Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief,
10Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss.
11Th' offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
13 Ah but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
14 And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.
Notes
1] beaut'ous] beauteous Q. Back to Line
5] Shakespeare again compares the beloved to the sun (cf. sonnets 7, 33). Back to Line
12] cross] losse Q (an identical rhyme with line 10). A "losse"-"crosse" rhyme in the same location in sonnet 42 (lines 10, 12) lends support to this widely-accepted emendation. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
Form