Starry Eyes

But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive.

–Sonnet XIV (14)

Time

And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

–Sonnet XV (15)

Verse

Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.

–Sonnet XIX (19)

My Love Is Beautiful

O’ let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother’s child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fix’d in heaven’s air.

–Sonnet XXI (21)

Safe and Loved

Then happy I, that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove nor be removed.

–Sonnet XXV (25)

Worthy

Till whatsoever star that guides my moving
Points on me graciously with fair aspect
And puts apparel on my tatter’d loving,
To show me worthy of thy sweet respect:
 Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee.

–Sonnet XXVI (26)

Uplifted

For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

–Sonnet XXIX (29)

Love Reigns

And there reigns love and all love’s loving parts…
Their images I loved I view in thee,
And thou, all they, hast all the all of me.

–Sonnet XXXI (31)

Healing

Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.

–Sonnet XXXIV (35)

Take All My Love

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all.
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?

–Sonnet XL (40)

Picture

With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away art present still with me.

–Sonnet XLVII (47)

Anything You Do

So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

–Sonnet LVII (57)

Losing Sleep

It is my love that keeps mine eye awake;
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake.

–Sonnet LXI (61)

Ink

…this miracle have might,
 That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

–Sonnet LXV (65)

Thirst

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground.

–Sonnet LXXV (75)

Raison d’etre

O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument.

–Sonnet LXXVI (76)

Daily Devotion

 For as the sun is daily new and old,
 So is my love still telling what is told.

–Sonnet LXXVI (76)

Beyond Beautiful

Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Finding thy worth a limit past my praise.

–Sonnet LXXXII (82)

Unique

Who is it that says most? which can say more
Than this rich praise, that you alone are you?

–Sonnet LXXXIV (84)

Belong

Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.

–Sonnet LXXXVIII (88)

Richer than Wealth

Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments’ cost.

–Sonnet XCI (91)

Happy to Love

And life no longer than thy love will stay,
For it depends upon that love of thine…
O, what a happy title do I find,
Happy to have thy love, happy to die!

–Sonnet XCII (92)

Your Face

But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell.

–Sonnet XCIII (93)

Better Because of You

…I love thee in such sort
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

–Sonnet XCVI (96)

Pattern of Beauty

Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.

–Sonnet XCVIII (98)

Genuine and Simple

My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear:
That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming
The owner’s tongue doth publish every where.

–Sonnet CII (102)

Kind

Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence.

–Sonnet CV (105)

Uncontrollable

Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control.

–Sonnet CVII (107)

Fresh

Now with the drops of this most balmy time
My love looks fresh.

–Sonnet CVII (107)

Say It Again

What’s new to speak, what new to register,
That may express my love or thy dear merit?
Nothing, sweet… but yet, like prayers divine,
I must, each day say o’er the very same.

–Sonnet CVIII (108)

Timeless

So that eternal love in love’s fresh case
Weighs not the dust and injury of age.

–Sonnet CVIII (108)

You Are Everything

As easy might I from myself depart
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie:
That is my home of love…
For nothing this wide universe I call,
Save thou, my rose; in it thou art my all.

–Sonnet CIX (109)

All You

You are my all the world, and I must strive
To know my shames and praises from your tongue.

–Sonnet CXII (112)

Alchemy of Love

And that your love taught it this alchemy,
To make of monsters and things indigest
Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble,
Creating every bad a perfect best.

–Sonnet CXIV (114)

Unshakable

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

–Sonnet CXVI (116)

Staying Power

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

–Sonnet CXVI (116)

Rare and Real

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

–Sonnet CXXX (130)

Precious Jewel

For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart
Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.

–Sonnet CXXXI (131)

Suggestive

My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no father reason;
But, rising at thy name, doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize.

–Sonnet CLI (151)

Heat Transfer

Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.

–Sonnet CLIV (154)