Page:Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale.djvu/72

62 

No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:

Thy pyramids built up with newer might

To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;

They are but dressings of a former sight.

Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire

What thou dost foist upon us that is old;

And rather make them born to our desire

Than think that we before have heard them told.

Thy registers and thee I both defy,

Not wondering at the present nor the past,

For thy records and what we see doth lie,

Made more or less by thy continual haste.

This I do vow, and this shall ever be;

I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.

 

If my dear love were but the child of state,

It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd,

As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,

Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.

No, it was builded far from accident;

It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls

Under the blow of thralled discontent,

Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls:

It fears not policy, that heretic,

Which works on leases of short number'd hours,

But all alone stands hugely politic,

That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.

To this I witness call the fools of time,

Which die for goodness, who have liv'd for crime.

 2 newer: more recent

4 dressings: refashionings

5 dates: years of life

7, 8 Cf. n.

11 doth lie: doth tell us a lie

12 Made more or less: increasing and decreasing, constantly changing  1 child of state: born of circumstances, accidental

2 for: because it was

4 Weeds gather'd; cf. n.

7 thralled discontent: discontent held in subjection

8 Whereto: to which

fashion: custom, usage

9 policy: craft

11 hugely politic: extremely wise

13, 14 Cf. n. 