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Poetry · sonnet

Sonnet 5

William ShakespeareFirst edition, 1609sonnet
SOURCE TEXT · English original
Those howers that with gentle worke did frame,
The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell
Will play the tirants to the very same,
And that vnfaire which fairely doth excell:
For neuer resting time leads Summer on,
To hidious winter and confounds him there,
Sap checkt with frost and lustie leau's quite gon.
Beauty ore-snow'd and barenes euery where,
Then were not summers distillation left
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glasse,
Beauties effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor noe remembrance what it was.
But flowers distil'd though they with winter meete,
Leese but their show, their substance still liues sweet.
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.