Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 81

by William Shakespeare

For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 81 (Shakespeare).

Layout 2

81

Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten. 4
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie. 8
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse,
When all the breathers of this world are dead; 12
You still shall live,—such virtue hath my pen,—
Where breath most breathes,—even in the mouths of men.

 

6 to all the world: in the world's memory
11 to be: of future generations