Sunday sonnet: William Shakespeare

Here's a sonnet from Shakespeare, published in 1609 and telling of the permanence of poetry.


55

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wears this world out to the ending doom.
- So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
- You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.


Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg