13
O that you were yourself! but, love, you are
No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give: 4
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination; then you were
Yourself again, after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. 8
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold? 12
O, none but unthrifts. Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son say so.
14
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality; 4
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find: 8
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As 'Truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;' 12
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
'Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.'
1 yourself; cf. n.
6 determination: end
10 husbandry: thrift
13 unthrifts: wastrels
2 have astronomy: know astrology
5 tell: allot
6 Pointing: appointing
8 oft predict: frequent predictions
10 art: knowledge
12 If from thyself . . . convert; cf. n.
14 date: end
