stardust

"SONNET 55". Author: William Shakespeare.

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of Princess, shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents,
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn.
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war´s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
´Gainst death and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the Judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers´eyes.

Author: William Shakespeare.

SONNET 73.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death´s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv´st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Author: William Shakespeare.
I share these 2 Shakespeare´s Sonnets with all of you. Sonnet 55 is Jonathan´s favourite Sonnet. Sonnet 73 is Mark´s favourite Sonnet.
I hope you all enjoy these readings. Sincerely, Stardust.

Mark Allinson

Thank you, Stardust!

I love 'em!

Mark Allinson

I meant to add, that I love the pun in the last line of 73, where he tells the friend that "thou must leave ere long." The surface meaning is that the friend will have to leave the speaker before long, since the speaker is old and will soon die. But he is also telling the friend that, like the autumn trees at the start of the sonnet, the friend will "leave" (as if leaf) - that is, he will also reach his autumn years.

stardust

Thank you Mark for your kind comments!! Sincerely, Stardust.