Shakespeare's Sonnets: My glass shall not persuade me I am old

Shakespeare's Sonnets: My glass shall not persuade me I am old

Sonnet 22

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): c1v.
2So long as youth and thou are of one date,
3But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
5For all that beauty that doth cover thee
6Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
7Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me.
8How can I then be elder than thou art?
9O therefore love be of thy self so wary
10As I, not for my self but for thee, will,
12As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
14    Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.

Notes

1] glass] mirror. Back to Line
4] my days should expiate] end my days (OED, "expiate," v., 7). Back to Line
11] chary] preciously. Back to Line
13] Presume not on] Don't expect the return of. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Form