William Shakespeare – A Fairy Song

Over hill, over dale,Thorough bush, thorough brier,Over park, over pale,Thorough flood, thorough fire!I do wander everywhere,Swifter than the moon's sphere;And I serve the Fairy Queen,To dew her orbs upon the green;The cowslips tall her pensioners be;In their gold coats spots you...

William Shakespeare – A Madrigal

Crabbed Age and YouthCannot live together:Youth is full of pleasance,Age is full of care;Youth like summer morn,Age like winter weather;Youth like summer brave,Age like winter bare:Youth is full of sports,Age's breath is short,Youth is nimble, Age is lame:Youth is hot and bold,Age...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 100

Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so longTo speak of that which gives thee all thy might?Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeemIn gentle numbers time so idly spent;Sing to the...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 18

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck,And yet methinks I have astronomy,But not to tell of good, or evil luck,Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality,Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell;Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,Or say with princes if it shall go wellBy...

William Shakespeare – Spring

When daisies pied, and violets blue,And lady-smocks all silver-white,And cuckoo-buds of yellow hueDo paint the meadows with delight,The cuckoo then, on every tree,Mocks married men, for thus sings he:'Cuckoo!Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,Unpleasing to a married ear.When shepherds...

William Shakespeare – Take, O Take those Lips Away

Take, O take those lips away,That so sweetly were forsworn;And those eyes, the break of day,Lights that do mislead the morn:But my kisses bring again,bring again,Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,seal'd in va...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 106

When in the chronicle of wasted timeI see descriptions of the fairest wights,And beauty making beautiful old rhymeIn praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,I see their antique pen would have express'dEven...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 98

From you have I been absent in the spring,When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him,Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smellOf different flowers in odor and in hue,Could make me any...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 44

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,Injurious distance should not stop my way;For then despite of space I would be brought,From limits far remote where thou dost stay.No matter then although my foot did standUpon the farthest earth removed from thee;For nimble thought...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 5

Those hours, that with gentle work did frameThe lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,Will play the tyrants to the very sameAnd that unfair which fairly doth excel;For never-resting time leads summer onTo hideous winter, and confounds him there;Sap checked with frost, and lusty...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 4

Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spendUpon thy self thy beauty's legacy?Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,And being frank she lends to those are free:Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuseThe bounteous largess given thee to give?Profitless usurer, why dost thou...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 8

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly,Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy?If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,By unions married, do offend thine ear,They do but...

William Shakespeare – All the World's a Stage

All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchelAnd...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 3

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest, Now is the time that face should form another, Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where is she so fair whose uneared womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 2

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field, Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held. Then being asked where all thy beauty lies— Where all the treasure of thy lusty days— To say...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 1

From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty’s rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory; But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel, Making...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 19

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, And burn the long-liv'd Phoenix in her blood; Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets, And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every...

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 15

When I consider everything that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment, That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows Whereon the stars in secret influence comment; When I perceive that men as plants increase, Cheered and check'd even by the selfsame sky, Vaunt...

William Shakespeare – Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,    Thou art not so unkind       As man’s ingratitude;    Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen,       Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most...