Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 83
For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 83 (Shakespeare).
83
I never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
The barren tender of a poet's debt: 4
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself, being extant, well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow. 8
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory, being dumb;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tomb. 12
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
4 tender: offer to pay
5 in your report: in describing, praising, you
7 modern: ordinary
14 both your poets; Cf. n.