Sonnet 115

Constancy and the Muse

  1. 1 Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
  2. 2 Even those that said I could not love you dearer:
  3. 3 Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
  4. 4 My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
  5. 5 But reckoning Time, whose million'd accidents
  6. 6 Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
  7. 7 Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
  8. 8 Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
  9. 9 Alas! why fearing of Time's tyranny,
  10. 10 Might I not then say, 'Now I love you best,'
  11. 11 When I was certain o'er incertainty,
  12. 12 Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
  13. 13 Love is a babe, then might I not say so,
  14. 14 To give full growth to that which still doth grow?