Sonnet Twenty-two by William Shakespeare

Click here for a complete INDEX

Sonnet XXII

by William Shakespeare

 

My glass shall not persuade me I am old,

So long as youth and thou are of one date;

But when in thee time's furrows I behold,

Then look I death my days should expiate.

For all that beauty that doth cover thee,

Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,

Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:

How can I then be elder than thou art?

O! Therefore, love, be of thyself so wary

As I, not for myself, but for thee will;

Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary

As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.

Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,

Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.

 

 

LITERATURE OUT LOUD -- see and hear great literature

Audio narrations with synchronized visual text

 

Click on the player below to hear the audio version of this sonnet.

Sonnet 22