Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same
And that unfair which fairly doth excel:
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there;
Sap check’d with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o’ersnow’d and bareness every where:
Then, were not summer’s distillation left,
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty’s effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was:
But flowers distill’d though they with winter meet,
Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.
An exquisite sonnet. I loved the distillation.
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Mr. Shakespeare will be very pleased you have enjoyed it from wherever he may be watching these 600-odd years.
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This is a favorite of mine. So glad you have chosen to treat with it, Dearest.
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I do like this one, I think best, of all of the early ones I have read thus far.
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Reblogged this on Deo Optimo Maximo.
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I am sure the Bard bows to this honour nearly 700 years later : )
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“Then, were not summer’s distillation left,
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass”
Most excellent my friend! Bravo!
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Once again, Shakespeare is the author here, however the next reflection on the same day is mine. Alas I cannot take credit for what the Bard has rendered.
Question: Is there something I should do to better mark these? Oft times these are mistaken for my own, which is very generous to be sure, but I can’t… no I can’t for the life of me understand how to make this more clear : )
Now please understand, this is no dilemma! Just a curiosity. I thought I would ask you as you are often most forthcoming–a trait which I most appreciate!! : )
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Actually you gave credit accordingly. My accolades were for your choice in the sonnet itself. Whether or not written by you… it is still something that speaks to you and thus you speak to us. :-)
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oh that is fine then! I was curious. Perhaps. that is what I am seeing in other cases. Merely an appreciation of the lines themselves rather than a case of mistaken identity. I confess I had not yet framed it this way.
Thank you very very much for shedding some much needed light on the matter. I am in your debt most humbly.
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No need to be in debt to me my friend…. :-)
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: ) in any case, my thanks.
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