Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator Summary of Sonnet 125 in the Table of Contents Notes for Sonnet 125

Shakespeare's Sonnet 125


  1    Were't aught to me I bore the canopy,
  2    With my extern the outward honouring,
  3    Or laid great bases for eternity,
  4    Which prove more short than waste or ruining?
  5    Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
  6    Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent,
  7    For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,
  8    Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent?
  9    No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
 10    And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
 11    Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art,
 12    But mutual render, only me for thee.
 13      Hence, thou suborn'd informer! a true soul
 14      When most impeach'd stands least in thy control.

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