Sonnet 6 by William Shakespeare

I decided it would be a good idea to have an Elizabethan costume to read these sonnets in.

(And I just happened to have one lying around!)
If you’d like to see other episodes that feature Shakespeare as an author, visit the Shakespeare page.

Sonnet VI by William Shakespeare

You can purchase a new copy of the Sonnets on Amazon.

Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface
In thee thy summer ere thou be distilled.
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty’s treasure ere it be self-killed.


That use is not forbidden usury
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That’s for thyself to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one. 


Ten times thyself were happier than thou art
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee;
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity? 


Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
To be death’s conquest and make worms thine heir.