Friday, June 19, 2009

An oldie, but a goodie

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:


So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee

14 comments:

squib said...

I prefer #29

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Isn't the #29 the beef in black bean sauce, Squib?

Perseus said...

I read somewhere once that this is perhaps / maybe about a bloke. This by no means demeans the sentiment or the poetry. It's just an interesting observation is all.

Melba said...

I know it's predictable, but I do like my poetry romantico and traditional. This is the first poem I've liked for ages, Ramon. Thanks. Is this not the one you recited at your wedding?

homesick said...

"How do love thee let me count the ways"

Spouse let Liz's words woo me on our big day.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

No, no Melba.

Mine was "Come live with me and be my love".

Next week, a Soviet poem from 1920 about tractors.

Perseus said...

Just when I thought my 'bawdy pirate goth' poems belonged to a totally unique sub-genre, along comes 'soviet tractor' to wipe me away.

Unknown said...

I use this sonnet every time I teach Shakespeare. It's my favouritest.

I heard it was about a bloke as well, Perseus and whenever I tell the kids about that it always gets a great reaction from them.

Perseus said...

Bill Bryson, in his quite good book 'Shakespeare', disputes that though, and with good cause, namely, that there is not one iota of evidence that it's about a bloke. It's only a theory that came about 400 years later that has no acadamic or historical credibility.

Unknown said...

I heart Bill Bryson.

I'll say almost anything to get them interested in Shakespeare. An English teacher's gotta do what an English teacher's gotta do. And one day, one of them will come up to me and say, Miss EMS there's no evidence Shakespeare was gay. And I'll have won because they were interested enough to find out more about it. Yay for me.

squib said...

I look forward to the tractor verse

Melba said...

Me too. I hope there is a sickle in it. Or at least a scythe.

Lewd Bob said...

You mean like this one Melba:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/happyhyde/2536572552/

Melba said...

Yes, Bob. Exactly like that. Thank you.