Today is Shakespeare's 445th Brithday! So, happy birthday to the man who brought to the world the most beautiful words ever written. In his honor, my favorite sonnet:
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
-William Shakespeare
11 comments:
What?! But Sonnet 130 is so much better!!!! :)
SONNET 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
I love both of those sonnets! Shakespeare was the master! It's funny that today is his b'day and I cited him in my comment over at glam's a little while ago. He totally rocks! Even still!
Ah, beautiful : )
It's a relief to see the Bard so appreciated. I spend far too much of my time explaining to my ninth graders that, "Give me my long sword! Ho!" was not an example of Elizabethan slang but rather another way of saying, "Hurry, give me my sword!"
Happy birthday, Willy Shakes : )
That's my favorite, too! I love the sonnets.
It's Laura's daughter's b-day today too! I wonder if that means she'll grow up to be a writer...
This makes me want to re-read As You Like It.
Happy Birthday to him! It's my mother in law's birthday too. :D
Beth - 116 still my fave! ;-)
Lois - I love him! :-)
KLo - I used to teach 9th grade too! Peace Ho...Yeah! ugh!
Cindy - it's the most beautiful. :-)
Lisa and Laura - happy b-day to Laura's daughter! :-)
Glam - I knew you'd show up for willie's party! LOL
Ah, to be so old, and look so young. ;-)
W.S. rocks! I love all the sonnets. Thanks for honoring him. :)
Sonnet 116 is the best sonnet ever!
Windsong...I know!!! Right!! LOL
Robyn...he's the man!
Doninique - I agree! Totally!
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