To me, fair friend, you never can be old (Sonnet 104) by William Shakespeare

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 23, 2016   To me, fair friend, you never can be old (Sonnet 104)   William Shakespeare

To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I ey’d, Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold, Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride, Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d, In process of the seasons have I seen, Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d, Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green. Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand, Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv’d; So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand, Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv’d:    For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:    Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed in the late 1590s and published in 1609 as the book Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Almost all of the 154 poems in the book were composed of three quatrains and a couplet, a form now recognized as the Shakespearean sonnet.   William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon, England. He was regarded as the foremost dramatist and poet of his time. In addition to his 154 sonnets, he wrote more than thirty plays. He died on April 23, 1616. Poetry by Shakespeare   Shakespeare's Sonnets (Simon & Schuster, 2004)    "I Am a Little World Made Cunningly (Holy Sonnet V)" by John Donne "Sonnet VII [O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell]" by John Keats "I Know My Soul" by Claude McKay Poems on the Air   Every weekday at 6 p.m. (EST) during National Poetry Month, New York’s classical music station WQXR 105.9 FM will feature a special reading of a poem from the Poem-a-Day series. Tune in or visit wqxr.org. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038