Sonnet 83

The Rival Poet

  1. 1 I never saw that you did painting need,
  2. 2 And therefore to your fair no painting set;
  3. 3 I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
  4. 4 That barren tender of a poet's debt:
  5. 5 And therefore have I slept in your report,
  6. 6 That you yourself, being extant, well might show
  7. 7 How far a modern quill doth come too short,
  8. 8 Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
  9. 9 This silence for my sin you did impute,
  10. 10 Which shall be most my glory being dumb;
  11. 11 For I impair not beauty being mute,
  12. 12 When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
  13. 13 There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
  14. 14 Than both your poets can in praise devise.