Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Shakespeare. 15641616158. Sonnets xiv
MY love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming; | |
I love not less, though less the show appear: | |
That love is merchandised whose rich esteeming | |
The owner’s tongue doth publish everywhere. | |
Our love was new, and then but in the spring, | 5 |
When I was wont to greet it with my lays; | |
As Philomel in summer’s front doth sing | |
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days: | |
Not that the summer is less pleasant now | |
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night, | 10 |
But that wild music burthens every bough, | |
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight. | |
Therefore, like her, I sometime hold my tongue, | |
Because I would not dull you with my song. |