Gateway to the Classics: Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 2 by Arthur Quiller-Couch
 
Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 2 by  Arthur Quiller-Couch

Sonnet CVI

When in the chronicle of wasted time

I see descriptions of the fairest wights,

And beauty making beautiful old rime

In praise of Ladies dead and lovely Knights;

Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,

Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,

I see their antique pen would have exprest

Even such a beauty as you master now.

So all their praises are but prophecies

Of this our time, all you prefiguring;

And for they look'd but with divining eyes,

They had not skill enough your worth to sing:

For we, which now behold these present days,

Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

— William Shakespeare
1564-1616   


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