William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

SECOND THOUGHT

MY mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask’d red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak,—yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go,—

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground;

And yet by Heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belie’d with false compare.