Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Shakespeare. 15641616150. Sonnets vi
O HOW much more doth beauty beauteous seem | |
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! | |
The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem | |
For that sweet odour which doth in it live. | |
The Canker-blooms have full as deep a dye | 5 |
As the perfumèd tincture of the Roses, | |
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly | |
When summer’s breath their maskèd buds discloses: | |
But—for their virtue only is their show— | |
They live unwoo’d and unrespected fade, | 10 |
Die to themselves. Sweet Roses do not so; | |
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made. | |
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, | |
When that shall vade, my verse distils your truth. |