CIX LIX
O, never say that I was false of heart
Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify
As easy might I from myself depart
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie
That is my home of love: if I have ranged
Like him that travels I return again
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged
So that myself bring water for my stain
Never believe, though in my nature reign'd
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood
That it could so preposterously be stain'd
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good
For nothing this wide universe I call
Save thou, my rose; in it thou art my all
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child!
O, that record could with a backward look
Even of five hundred courses of the sun
Show me your image in some antique book
Since mind at first in character was done
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame
Whether we are mended, or whether better they
Or whether revolution be the same
O, sure I am, the wits of former days
To subjects worse have given admiring praise
Lyrics by William Shakespeare
From
Sonnet 109 & 59