Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator | Summary of Sonnet 54 in the Table of Contents | Notes for Sonnet 54 |
1 O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem 2 By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! 3 The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 4 For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 5 The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 6 As the perfumed tincture of the roses, 7 Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly 8 When summer's breath their masked buds discloses. 9 But, for their virtue only is their show, 10 They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, 11 Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; 12 Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: 13 And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, 14 When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. |
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