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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  150. Sonnets vi

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Shakespeare. 1564–1616

150. 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.