Sonnet 124
Farewell to the Fair Youth
- 1 If my dear love were but the child of state,
- 2 It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd,
- 3 As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
- 4 Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.
- 5 No, it was builded far from accident;
- 6 It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
- 7 Under the blow of thralled discontent,
- 8 Whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls:
- 9 It fears not policy, that heretic,
- 10 Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,
- 11 But all alone stands hugely politic,
- 12 That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.
- 13 To this I witness call the fools of time,
- 14 Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.