The Procreation Sonnets (1 - 17) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BABCDEDEFGHGCC A IJIKDLDLMN NOO A OPOPQCQCCRCRCC OCOCM M S T CC C UVUVWXTXOYOZOO A2OA2OCSCB2OCOCXX O OCC2D2C2E2F2OF2OG2B2 CH2CH2I2J2I2XPGPGB2 I2 K2OK2OOOOOI2I2 I2 COCOOPOPO O CC C OOOOI2OI2OL2M2L2M2 I2 ROROI2OI2OGGGGI2I2 I2 F2 X I2PI2XOOOI | A |
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From fairest creatures we desire increase | B |
That thereby beauty's rose might never die | A |
But as the riper should by time decease | B |
His tender heir might bear his memory | C |
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes | D |
Feed'st thy light's flame with self substantial fuel | E |
Making a famine where abundance lies | D |
Thy self thy foe to thy sweet self too cruel | E |
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament | F |
And only herald to the gaudy spring | G |
Within thine own bud buriest thy content | H |
And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding | G |
Pity the world or else this glutton be | C |
To eat the world's due by the grave and thee | C |
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II | A |
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When forty winters shall besiege thy brow | I |
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field | J |
Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now | I |
Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held | K |
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies | D |
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days | L |
To say within thine own deep sunken eyes | D |
Were an all eating shame and thriftless praise | L |
How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use | M |
If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine | N |
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse ' | - |
Proving his beauty by succession thine | N |
This were to be new made when thou art old | O |
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold | O |
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III | A |
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Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest | O |
Now is the time that face should form another | P |
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest | O |
Thou dost beguile the world unbless some mother | P |
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb | Q |
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry | C |
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb | Q |
Of his self love to stop posterity | C |
Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee | C |
Calls back the lovely April of her prime | R |
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see | C |
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time | R |
But if thou live remember'd not to be | C |
Die single and thine image dies with thee | C |
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IV | - |
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Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend | O |
Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy | C |
Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend | O |
And being frank she lends to those are free | C |
Then beauteous niggard why dost thou abuse | M |
The bounteous largess given thee to give | - |
Profitless usurer why dost thou use | M |
So great a sum of sums yet canst not live | - |
For having traffic with thy self alone | S |
Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive | - |
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone | T |
What acceptable audit canst thou leave | - |
Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee | C |
Which used lives th' executor to be | C |
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V | C |
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Those hours that with gentle work did frame | U |
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell | V |
Will play the tyrants to the very same | U |
And that unfair which fairly doth excel | V |
For never resting time leads summer on | W |
To hideous winter and confounds him there | X |
Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone | T |
Beauty o'er snowed and bareness every where | X |
Then were not summer's distillation left | O |
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass | Y |
Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft | O |
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was | Z |
But flowers distill'd though they with winter meet | O |
Leese but their show their substance still lives sweet | O |
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VI | - |
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Then let not winter's ragged hand deface | A2 |
In thee thy summer ere thou be distilled | O |
Make sweet some vial treasure thou some place | A2 |
With beauty's treasure ere it be self killed | O |
That use is not forbidden usury | C |
Which happies those that pay the willing loan | S |
That's for thy self to breed another thee | C |
Or ten times happier be it ten for one | B2 |
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art | O |
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee | C |
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart | O |
Leaving thee living in posterity | C |
Be not self willed for thou art much too fair | X |
To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir | X |
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VII | - |
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Lo in the orient when the gracious light | O |
Lifts up his burning head each under eye | - |
Doth homage to his new appearing sight | O |
Serving with looks his sacred majesty | C |
And having climbed the steep up heavenly hill | C2 |
Resembling strong youth in his middle age | D2 |
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still | C2 |
Attending on his golden pilgrimage | E2 |
But when from highmost pitch with weary car | F2 |
Like feeble age he reeleth from the day | O |
The eyes 'fore duteous now converted are | F2 |
From his low tract and look another way | O |
So thou thyself outgoing in thy noon | G2 |
Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son | B2 |
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VIII | - |
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Music to hear why hear'st thou music sadly | C |
Sweets with sweets war not joy delights in joy | H2 |
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly | C |
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy | H2 |
If the true concord of well tuned sounds | I2 |
By unions married do offend thine ear | J2 |
They do but sweetly chide thee who confounds | I2 |
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear | X |
Mark how one string sweet husband to another | P |
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering | G |
Resembling sire and child and happy mother | P |
Who all in one one pleasing note do sing | G |
Whose speechless song being many seeming one | B2 |
Sings this to thee 'Thou single wilt prove none ' | - |
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IX | I2 |
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Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye | - |
That thou consum'st thy self in single life | - |
Ah if thou issueless shalt hap to die | - |
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife | - |
The world will be thy widow and still weep | K2 |
That thou no form of thee hast left behind | O |
When every private widow well may keep | K2 |
By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind | O |
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend | O |
Shifts but his place for still the world enjoys it | O |
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end | O |
And kept unused the user so destroys it | O |
No love toward others in that bosom sits | I2 |
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits | I2 |
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X | I2 |
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For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any | C |
Who for thy self art so unprovident | O |
Grant if thou wilt thou art beloved of many | C |
But that thou none lov'st is most evident | O |
For thou art so possessed with murderous hate | O |
That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire | P |
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate | O |
Which to repair should be thy chief desire | P |
O change thy thought that I may change my mind | O |
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love | - |
Be as thy presence is gracious and kind | O |
Or to thyself at least kind hearted prove | - |
Make thee another self for love of me | C |
That beauty still may live in thine or thee | C |
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XI | C |
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As fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow'st | O |
In one of thine from that which thou departest | O |
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st | O |
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest | O |
Herein lives wisdom beauty and increase | I2 |
Without this folly age and cold decay | O |
If all were minded so the times should cease | I2 |
And threescore year would make the world away | O |
Let those whom nature hath not made for store | L2 |
Harsh featureless and rude barrenly perish | M2 |
Look whom she best endow'd she gave the more | L2 |
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish | M2 |
She carv'd thee for her seal and meant thereby | - |
Thou shouldst print more not let that copy die | - |
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XII | I2 |
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When I do count the clock that tells the time | R |
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night | O |
When I behold the violet past prime | R |
And sable curls all silvered o'er with white | O |
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves | I2 |
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd | O |
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves | I2 |
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard | O |
Then of thy beauty do I question make | G |
That thou among the wastes of time must go | G |
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake | G |
And die as fast as they see others grow | G |
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence | I2 |
Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence | I2 |
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XIII | I2 |
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O that you were your self but love you are | F2 |
No longer yours than you your self here live | - |
Against this coming end you should prepare | X |
And your sweet semblance to some other give | - |
So should that beauty which you hold in lease | I2 |
Find no determination then you were | P |
Yourself again after yourself's decease | I2 |
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear | X |
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay | O |
Which husbandry in honour might uphold | O |
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day | O |
William Shakespeare
(1)
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