Shakespeare

Sonnet 18
ORIGINAL TEXT

MODERN TEXT

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

Shall I compare you to a summer day? Youre lovelier

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

and milder. Rough winds shake the pretty buds of May,

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

and summer doesnt last nearly long enough.

And summers lease hath all too short a date.

Sometimes the sun shines too hot, and often its golden

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

face is darkened by clouds. And everything beautiful

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

stops being beautiful, either by accident or simply in the

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

course of nature. But your eternal summer will never

By chance or natures changing course untrimmed.

fade, nor will you lose possession of your beauty, nor

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

shall death brag that you are wandering in the

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst,

underworld, once youre captured in my eternal verses.

Nor shall death brag thou wandrest in his shade,

As long as men are alive and have eyes with which to

When in eternal lines to time thou growst.

see, this poem will live and keep you alive.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 19
ORIGINAL TEXT

MODERN TEXT

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lions paws,

Devouring Time, go ahead and blunt the lions paws.

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;

Make the earth swallow up her own creatures. Pluck

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tigers jaws,

the sharp teeth out of the fierce tigers jaws, and burn

And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;

the long-lived phoenix in its own blood. Make happy

Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleetst,

and sad times as you fly by, and do whatever you want,

And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed time,

swift-footed Time, to the wide world and all its vanishing

To the wide world and all her fading sweets;

delights. But I forbid you to commit one heinous crime.

But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:

Oh, dont carve wrinkles into my loves beautiful

O carve not with thy hours my loves fair brow,

forehead, and dont draw lines there with your old pen.

Nor draw no lines there with thine ntique pen.

Let him pass through time untainted, to serve as the

Him in thy course untainted do allow

model of beauty for men to come. But do your worst,

For beautys pattern to succeeding men.

old Time. Despite your wrongs, my love will stay young

Yet do thy worst, old Time; despite thy wrong,

forever in my poetry.

My love shall in my verse ever live young.

Sonnet 20

ORIGINAL TEXT

MODERN TEXT

A womans face, with natures own hand painted,

Your face is as pretty as a womans, but you dont even

Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;

have to use makeupyou, the man (or should I

A womans gentle heart, but not acquainted

say woman?) I love. Your heart is as gentle as a

With shifting change, as is false womens fashion;

womans, but it isnt cheating like theirs. Your eyes are

An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,

prettier than womens, but not as rovingyou bless

Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;

everything you look at. Youve got the good looks of a

A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,

handsome man, but you attract both women and men.

Which steals mens eyes and womens souls

When Mother Nature made you, she originally intended

amazeth.

to make you a woman, but then she got carried away

And for a woman wert thou first created,

with her creation and screwed me by adding a

Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,

certainthing that I have no use for. But since she gave

And by addition me of thee defeated,

you a prick to please women, Ill keep your love, and

By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

they can enjoy your body.

But since she pricked thee out for womens

pleasure,
Mine be thy love, and thy loves use their
treasure.

Sonnet 29
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MODERN TEXT

When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes

When Im in disgrace with everyone and my luck has

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

deserted me, I sit all alone and cry about the fact that

And trouble deaf heav'n with my bootless cries,

Im an outcast, and bother God with useless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

which fall on deaf ears, and look at myself and curse

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

my fate, wishing that I had more to hope for, wishing I

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

had this mans good looks and that mans friends, this

Desiring this mans art, and that mans scope,

mans skills and that mans opportunities, and totally

With what I most enjoy contented least;

dissatisfied with the things I usually enjoy the most. Yet,

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

as Im thinking these thoughts and almost hating

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

myself, I happen to think about you, and then my

Like to the lark at break of day arising

condition improveslike a lark at daybreak rising up

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heavens gate.

and leaving the earth far behind to sing hymns to God.

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth

For when I remember your sweet love, I feel so wealthy

brings

that Id refuse to change places even with kings.

That then I scorn to change my state with

kings.

Sonnet 73
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MODERN TEXT

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When you look at me, you can see an image of those

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

times of year when the leaves are yellow or have fallen,

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

or when the trees have no leaves at all and the bare

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds

branches where the sweet birds recently sang shiver in

sang.

anticipation of the cold. In me you can see the twilight

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

that remains after the sunset fades in the west, which

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

by and by is replaced by black night, the twin of death,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

which closes up everyone in eternal rest. In me you can

Deaths second self, that seals up all in rest.

see the remains of a fire still glowing atop the ashes of

In me thou seest the glowing of such fire

its early stages, as if it lay on its own deathbed, on

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

which it has to burn out, consuming what used to fuel it.

As the deathbed whereon it must expire

You see all these things, and they make your love

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

stronger, because you love even more what you know

This thou perceivst, which makes thy love

youll lose before long.

more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere
long.

Sonnet 116
ORIGINAL TEXT

MODERN TEXT

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

I hope I may never acknowledge any reason why minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

that truly love each other shouldnt be joined together.

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Love isnt really love if it changes when it sees the

Or bends with the remover to remove.

beloved change or if it disappears when the beloved

O no, it is an ever-fixd mark

leaves. Oh no, love is a constant and unchanging light

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

that shines on storms without being shaken; it is the

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

star that guides every wandering boat. And like a star,

Whose worths unknown, although his height be

its value is beyond measure, though its height can be

taken.

measured. Love is not under times power, though time

Loves not times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

has the power to destroy rosy lips and cheeks. Love

Within his bending sickles compass come:

does not alter with the passage of brief hours and

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

weeks, but lasts until Doomsday. If Im wrong about this

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

and can be proven wrong, I never wrote, and no man

If this be error and upon me proved,

ever loved.

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 130
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MODERN TEXT

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

My mistresss eyes are nothing like the sun. Coral is

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

much redder than the red of her lips. Compared to the

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

whiteness of snow, her breasts are grayish-brown.

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head;

Poets describe their mistresses' hair as gold wires, but

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

my mistress hasblack wires growing on her head. I

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

have seen roses that were a mixture of red and white,

And in some prfumes is there more delight

but I dont see those colors in her cheeks. And some

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

perfumes smell more delightful than my mistresss

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

reeking breath. I love to hear her speak; yet I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound.

perfectly well that music has a far more pleasant sound.

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

I admit I never saw a goddess walk; when my mistress

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the

walks, she treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I

ground.

think my beloved is as special as any woman whom

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

poets have lied about with false comparisons.

As any she belied with false compare.

Sonnet 147
ORIGINAL TEXT

MODERN TEXT

My love is as a fever, longing still

My love is like a fever, always making me yearn for

For that which longer nurseth the disease,

what will prolong my disease. It lives on whatever will

Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,

preserve the illness, in order to prop up my fickle

Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.

desire. My reasoning has acted as doctor and treated

My reason, the physician to my love,

my love, but then it left me because I wasnt following

Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,

its instructions. Now that Im finally desperate enough, I

Hath left me, and I desp'rate now approve

realize that sexual desire, which was against the

Desire is death, which physic did except.

doctors orders, is lethal. Now that my mind is past

Past cure I am, now reason is past care,

caring, Im past the point where I can be cured, and Ive

And frantic mad with evermore unrest,

gone frantically crazy and grown increasingly restless.

My thoughts and my discourse as madmens are,

My thoughts and speech are like a madmans,

At random from the truth vainly expressed;

pointlessly expressing random untruths. For I have

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee

sworn that youre beautiful and thought you radiant

bright,

when youre actually as black as hell and as dark as

Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

night.