To Me, Fair Friend, You Never Can Be Old

written by


« Reload image

To me, fair Friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed
Such seems your beauty still,  Three winters' cold
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;

Three beauteous springs to yellow autmun turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.

Ah! yes doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived,

For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,-
Ere you were born, was beauty's summer dead.

© William Shakespeare