The Memory Cathedral

O! that you were your self; but, love, you are No longer yours, than you your self here live: Against this coming end you should prepare,...

When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sab...

As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st In one of thine, from that which thou departest; And that fresh blood which youngly ...

Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye And all my soul, and all my every part; And for this sin there is no remedy, It is so grounded ...

Is it thy will, thy image should keep open My heavy eyelids to the weary night? Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken, While sha...

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before,...

Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid, My verse alone had all thy gentle grace; But now my gracious numbers are decayed, And my sick Muse...

So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse, And found such fair assistance in my verse As every alien pen hath got my use And under thee the...

Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste; The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will be...

Why is my verse so barren of new pride, So far from variation or quick change? Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found meth...

Or I shall live your epitaph to make, Or you survive when I in earth am rotten, From hence your memory death cannot take, Although in me...

O! how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might, To ma...

Those lines that I before have writ do lie, Even those that said I could not love you dearer: Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My...

Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you, Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery? Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith...

Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind; And that which governs me to go about Doth part his function and is partly blind, Seems seeing...

Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, And I will comment upon that offence: Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt, Aga...

When thou shalt be disposed to set me light, And place my merit in the eye of scorn, Upon thy side, against myself I'll fight, And ...

The forward violet thus did I chide: Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, If not from my love's breath? The pu...

From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing, Th...

How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! Wh...

Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness; Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport; Both grace and faults are lov'd of more a...

How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose, Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name! O! in...

They that have power to hurt, and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, ...

So shall I live, supposing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; so love's face May still seem love to me, though altered new; Thy...

But do thy worst to steal thyself away, For term of life thou art assured mine; And life no longer than thy love will stay, For it depen...