Y glass shall not persuade me I am old
- So long as youth and thou are of one date;
- But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
- Then look I death my days should expiate.
- For all that beauty that doth cover thee
- Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
- Which in they breast doth live, as thine in me:
- How can I then be elder than thou art?
- O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary
- As I, not for myself, but for thee will,
- Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
- As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
- Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
- Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.
SONNET #22
by: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)