Selected Sonnets of William Shakespeare

Part II

Sonnet XXXV: No more be grieved at that which thou hast done

No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:

Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,

Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,

And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.

All men make faults, and even I in this,

Authórizing thy trespass with compare,

Myself corrupting salving thy amiss,

Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are:

For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense—

Thy adverse party is thy advocate—

And ‘gainst myself a lawful plea commence.

Such civil war is in my love and hate,

That I an áccessory needs must be

To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.    

Sonnet XII: "When I do count the clock that tells the time

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls ensilvered o’er with white;

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,

Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:

Then of thy beauty do I question make

That thou among the wastes of time must go,

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,

And die as fast as they see others grow;

And nothing 'gainst time’s scythe can make defence

Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence.