The Sonnets
Sonnet 145
by William Shakespeare
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
On such a night, or such a night
I years had been from home
It sifts from leaden sieves
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced
Love is too young to know what conscience is
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
The night was wide, and furnished scant
Those lines that I before have writ do lie
How like a winter hath my absence been
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
So oft have I invoked thee for my muse
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye
So shall I live, supposing thou art true
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
One of the ones that Midas touched
In the old age black was not counted fair
How can I then return in happy plight
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence