Sonnet 103
Constancy and the Muse
- 1 Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,
- 2 That having such a scope to show her pride,
- 3 The argument, all bare, is of more worth
- 4 Than when it hath my added praise beside!
- 5 O! blame me not, if I no more can write!
- 6 Look in your glass, and there appears a face
- 7 That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
- 8 Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
- 9 Were it not sinful then, striving to mend,
- 10 To mar the subject that before was well?
- 11 For to no other pass my verses tend
- 12 Than of your graces and your gifts to tell;
- 13 And more, much more, than in my verse can sit,
- 14 Your own glass shows you when you look in it.