<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<h1 class="ls"><big>SONNETS</big><br/> <i><small>of</small></i><br/> SHAKESPEARE’S<br/> GHOST</h1>
<h2> I </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">THE wise world saith I not unlock’d my heart<br/>
<span class="i2">When I of thee and thy dear love did write,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And would each word of mine to false convert,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Doing my simple sense a double spite.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">It saith thou wert but shadow born of nought,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">But vain creation of an apish rhyme,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">While, Fashion’s fool, my strain’d invention sought</span><br/>
<span class="i0">To better them who best did please the time.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">But wherefore say they so, and do dear wrong</span><br/>
<span class="i0">To thee, whose worth was my sole argument,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">To me, whose verse ’twas truth alone made strong</span><br/>
<span class="i0">By that the breast must feel, not brain invent?</span><br/>
<span class="i2">They who this doubt never such beauty knew,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Nor what to poet love alone can do.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> II </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">THEY say a man ne’er bore such love to man,<br/>
<span class="i2">Or, if he did, ’twere but a cause for shame;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">But, speaking so, they their own measure scan,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And blot their censure with self-blaming blame.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">For, thou being Beauty’s best, the best of me</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Worshipp’d but Beauty’s self and Beauty’s worth;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">My fire and air, my spirit, adorèd thee</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Unmix’d with gross compounding of my earth.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And thou wert best of Truth, the first in grace</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Of all rich gems in Virtue’s carcanet;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Then should I not love thee and give thee place</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Above all love of sense on woman set?</span><br/>
<span class="i2">In love of Beauty, whate’er shape ’tis in,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">There’s nought of Truth, if it must think of sin.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> III </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">LOOK, when the rose to deep vermilion hue<br/>
<span class="i2">Adds that sweet odour gracious Nature gives,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">When his proud glory gladdens every view,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And no base worm within his beauties lives,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">We nothing question of what sex it be,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Nor ask more of it than that it should lend</span><br/>
<span class="i0">His lovely gaze for ravish’d eye to see,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And on the blessed air his fragrance spend.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">We ask not that the star which lights the heaven</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Should be or male or female to our sense,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Suffic’d in this, that it empearls the even,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And happies all our under reverence.</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Then might’st not thou, who wert both rose and star,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Be pure to me as these to others are?</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> IV </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">SOME hold it strange that love like thine and mine<br/>
<span class="i2">’Twixt two in state so sunder’d should be bred,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That he who did all worths in him combine,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Birth, beauty, wit, wealth, me thus honourèd,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Me, the poor motley, maim’d by Fortune’s spite,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Sear’d and o’erworn with tyranny of time,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Whose wit was but the wit to learn to write</span><br/>
<span class="i0">When thou, my Muse, inspir’dst my pupil rhyme.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Thou wert the wide world’s pride, but I his scorn;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">His pattern thou, I his poor toy and tool;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Whence therefore should that tender love be born</span><br/>
<span class="i0">’Twixt Fortune’s minion thee, and me her fool?</span><br/>
<span class="i2">O know they not that all such outward things</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Hold lowest count in the soul’s reckonings?</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> V </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">HADST thou been such as, boasting of their birth,<br/>
<span class="i3">Pass by the humbler-born with proud disdain,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Making self-merit of the antique worth</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Whereby some sire that state for them did gain;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Had riches’ dross so reign’d in thy respect,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That riches’ lack were deem’d by thee disgrace;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Of thy rare parts had ’t been the rude effect,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That cruel pride held gentle pity’s place;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Then would’st thou ne’er have look’d on lowly me,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">To find what merit there thou might’st approve,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Nor would my heart, grown warm for haughty thee,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Dare or desire to clamour for thy love.</span><br/>
<span class="i2">But all thy gifts were made more rich, more rare,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">By inward sweetness kind beyond compare.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> VI </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">WHY, thou being changeless, changeful did I write,<br/>
<span class="i3">Trusting thy truth, yet doubting thy defect,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Now all-triumphant, now confounded quite,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Sad-suited all, or proud in purple deck’d?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Did I not write of thy rare constancy,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Wherein was none like thee, thou like to none;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Swear that thy heart within my heart did lie</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Past all removal till the world were done?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">E’en so; but though, when clouds the region hold,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Masking with envious murk the sun’s bright face,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Our o’ergloom’d spirits shudder ’neath the cold,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">He merits not the blame of that disgrace:</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Himself is still the same, still warm, still bright,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Though clouds between hide both the warmth and light.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.