dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  157. Sonnets xiii

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

William Shakespeare. 1564–1616

157. Sonnets xiii

FROM you have I been absent in the spring, 
When proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim, 
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, 
That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him. 
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell         5
Of different flowers in odour and in hue, 
Could make me any summer’s story tell, 
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew; 
Nor did I wonder at the Lily’s white, 
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the Rose;  10
They were but sweet, but figures of delight, 
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. 
  Yet seem’d it Winter still, and, you away, 
  As with your shadow I with these did play.