Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 25

by William Shakespeare

For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 25 (Shakespeare).

Layout 2

25

Let those who are in favour with their stars
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most. 4
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die. 8
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd: 12
Then happy I, that love and am belov'd,
Where I may not remove nor be remov'd.

 

4 Unlook'd for: unexpectedly
6 But: only
7 And in . . . buried: their pride soon perishes with them