The Wild Hunt Divinations

[From fairest creatures we desire increase] • [When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,] • [Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest] • [Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend] • [Those hours, that with gentle work did frame] • [Then let not winter's ragged hand deface] • [Lo! in the orient when the gracious light] • [Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?] • [Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye] • [For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any] • [As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest] • [When I do count the clock that tells the time] • [O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are] • [Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck] • [When I consider every thing that grows] • [But wherefore do not you a mightier way] • [Who will believe my verse in time to come] • [Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?] • [Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws] • [A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted] • [So is it not with me as with that Muse] • [Myglass shall not persuade me I am old,] • [As an unperfect actor on the stage] • [Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd] • [Let those who are in favour with their stars] • [Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage] • [Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,] • [How can I then return in happy plight] • [When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes] • [When to the sessions of sweet silent thought] • [Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts] • [If thou survive my well-contented day] • [Full many a glorious morning have I seen] • [Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,] • [No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:] • [Let me confess that we two must be twain,] • [As a decrepit father takes delight] • [How can my Muse want subject to invent,] • [O, how thy worth with manners may I sing] • [Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;] • [Those petty wrongs that liberty commits,] • [That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,] • [When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,] • [If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,] • [The other two, slight air and purging fire,] • [Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war] • [Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took] • [How careful was I, when I took my way,] • [Against that time, if ever that time come,] • [How heavy do I journey on the way,] • [Thus can my love excuse the slow offence] • [So am I as the rich, whose blessed key] • [What is your substance, whereof are you made,] • [O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem] • [Not marble, nor the gilded monuments] • [Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said] • [Being your —, what should I do but tend] • [That god forbid that made me first your —,] • [If there be nothing new, but that which is] • [Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,] • [Is it thy will thy image should keep open] • [Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye] • [Against my love shall be, as I am now,] • [When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced] • [Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,] • [Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,] • [Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,] • [Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,] • [Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view] • [That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,] • [No longer mourn for me when I am dead] • [O, lest the world should task you to recite] • [That time of year thou mayst in me behold] • [But be contented: when that fell arrest] • [So are you to my thoughts as food to life] • [Why is my verse so barren of new pride,] • [Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,] •[So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse] • [Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,] • [O, how I faint when I of you do write,] • [Or I shall live your epitaph to make,] • [I grant thou wert not married to my Muse] • [I never saw that you did painting need] • [Who is it that says most? which can say more] • [My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still] • [Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,] • [Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,] • [When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,] • [Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,] • [Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;] • [Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,] • [But do thy worst to steal thyself away,] • [So shall I live, supposing thou art true,] • [They that have power to hurt and will do none,] • [How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame] • [Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness] • [How like a winter hath my absence been] • [From you have I been absent in the spring,] • [The forward violet thus did I chide:] • [Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long] • [O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends] • [My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;] • [Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,] • [To me, fair friend, you never can be old,] • [Let not my love be call'd idolatry] • [When in the chronicle of wasted time] • [Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul] • [What's in the brain that ink may character] • [O, never say that I was false of heart,] • [Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there] • [O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,] • [Your love and pity doth the impression fill] • [Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind;] • [Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,] • [Those lines that I before have writ do lie,] • [Let me not to the marriage of true minds] • [Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all] • [Like as, to make our appetites more keen,] • [What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,] • [That you were once unkind befriends me now,] • ['Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,] • [Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain] • [No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:] • [If my dear love were but the child of state,] • [Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,] • [O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power] • [In the old age black was not counted fair,] • [How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st,] • [The expense of spirit in a waste of shame] • [My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;] • [Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,] • [Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,] • [Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan] • [So, now I have confess'd that he is thine,] • [Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'] • [If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near,] • [Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,] • [When my love swears that she is made of truth] • [O, call not me to justify the wrong] • [Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press] • [In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,] • [Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,] •[Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch] • [Two loves I have of comfort and despair,] • [Those lips that Love's own hand did make] • [Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,] • [My love is as a fever, longing still] • [O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head,] • [Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,] • [O, from what power hast thou this powerful might] • [Love is too young to know what conscience is;] • [In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,] • [Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep:] • [The little Love-god lying once asleep] • On the Construction of the Text • Notes • Acknowledgements