Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 82
For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 82 (Shakespeare).
82
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse,
And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing every book. 4
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Finding thy worth a limit past my praise;
And therefore art enforc'd to seek anew
Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days. 8
And do so, love; yet when they have devis'd
What strained touches rhetoric can lend,
Thou truly fair wert truly sympathiz'd
In true plain words by thy true-telling friend; 12
And their gross painting might be better us'd
Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abus'd.
2 attaint: disgrace
6 limit: mark, goal
8 time-bettering days: present greater age
10 strained:exaggerated
11 sympathiz'd: matched