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Home  »  The Oxford Shakespeare  »  Sonnet CXXIII

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.

“No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change”

Sonnet CXXIII

NO, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
Thy pyramids built up with newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
They are but dressings of a former sight.
Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire          5
What thou dost foist upon us that is old;
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them told.
Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past,   10
For thy records and what we see doth lie,
Made more or less by thy continual haste.
  This I do vow, and this shall ever be;
  I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.