Sonnet 6

  1. Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface,
  2. In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill’d:
  3. Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
  4. With beauty’s treasure ere it be self-kill’d.
  5. That use is not forbidden usury,
  6. Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
  7. That’s for thyself to breed another thee,
  8. Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;
  9. Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,
  10. If ten of thine ten times refigur’d thee:
  11. Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
  12. Leaving thee living in posterity?
  13. Be not self-will’d, for thou art much too fair
  14. To be death’s conquest and make worms thine heir.

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