Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 22
For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 22 (Shakespeare).
22
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate. 4
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:
How can I then be elder than thou art? 8
O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary
As I, not for myself, but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill. 12
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gav'st me thine, not to give back again.
4 expiate: end
13 Presume not on: think not to regain