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Poetry · sonnet

Sonnet 3

William ShakespeareFirst edition, 1609sonnet
SOURCE TEXT · English original
Looke in thy glasse and tell the face thou vewest,
Now is the time that face should forme an other,
Whose fresh repaire if now thou not renewest,
Thou doo'st beguile the world, vnblesse some mother.
For where is she so faire whose vn-eard wombe
Disdaines the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tombe,
Of his selfe loue to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mothers glasse and she in thee
Calls backe the louely Aprill of her prime,
So thou through windowes of thine age shalt see,
Dispight of wrinkles this thy goulden time.
But if thou liue remembred not to be,
Die single and thine Image dies with thee.
Cultural reading

Text and edition

All fourteen lines are checked against the 1609 first-edition scan. Early spelling and punctuation are retained; no modern translation or commentary is supplied.

Language notes

Type and layout

Long s is displayed as s. Decorative initials, italic type, indentation and punctuation spacing are represented in plain text. Early spellings, including u/v forms, are retained.