Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator Summary of Sonnet 96 in the Table of Contents Notes for Sonnet 96

Shakespeare's Sonnet 96


  1    Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
  2    Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;
  3    Both grace and faults are lov'd of more and less;
  4    Thou mak'st faults graces that to thee resort.
  5    As on the finger of a throned queen
  6    The basest jewel will be well esteem'd
  7    So are those errors that in thee are seen
  8    To truths translated and for true things deem'd.
  9    How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,
 10    If like a lamb he could his looks translate!
 11    How many gazers mightst thou lead away,
 12    If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state!
 13      But do not so; I love thee in such sort
 14      As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

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