Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 125
125
Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which prove more short than waste or ruining? 4
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
Lose all and more by paying too much rent,
For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,
Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent? 8
No; let me be obsequious in thy heart,
And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art,
But mutual render, only me for thee. 12
Hence, thou suborn'd informer! a true soul
When most impeach'd stands least in thy control.
1 Were 't: would it be
bore the canopy: canopy of state; did outward reverence
2 With my extern: outwardly
7 savour: perfume
8 in their gazing spent: wasting themselves in regarding externals
10 free: whole-hearted
11 seconds: inferior matter
12 render: surrender
13, 14 Cf. n.