Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET: 17, by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: 17, by         Recitation         Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who will believe my verse in time to come
Last Line: You should live twice,--in it and in my rhyme.
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


WHO will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say, 'This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'
So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And you true rights be termed a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice,--in it and in my rhyme.





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