Sonnet 101: O Truant Muse, What Shall Be Thy Amends
William Shakespeare
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
Make answer, Muse. Wilt thou not haply say,
“Truth needs no colour with his colour fixed,
Beauty no pencil, beauty’s truth to lay,
But best is best, if never intermixed”?
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so, for’t lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb
And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how
To make him seem, long hence, as he shows now.
Next 10 Poems
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 102: My Love Is Strengthened, Though More Weak In Seeming
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 103: Alack, What Poverty My Muse Brings Forth
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 104: To Me, Fair Friend, You Never Can Be Old
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 105: Let Not My Love Be Called Idolatry
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 106: When In The Chronicle Of Wasted Time
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 107: Not Mine Own Fears, Nor The Prophetic Soul
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 108: What's In The Brain That Ink May Character
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 109: O, Never Say That I Was False Of Heart
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 11: As Fast As Thou Shalt Wane, So Fast Thou Grow'st
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 110: Alas, 'tis True, I Have Gone Here And There
Previous 10 Poems
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 100: Where Art Thou, Muse, That Thou Forget'st So Long
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 10: For Shame, Deny That Thou Bear'st Love To Any
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 1: From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 099: The Forward Violet Thus Did I Chide
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 098: From You Have I Been Absent In The Spring
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 097: How Like A Winter Hath My Absence Been
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 096: Some Say Thy Fault Is Youth, Some Wantonness
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 095: How Sweet And Lovely Dost Thou Make The Shame
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 094: They That Have Power To Hurt And Will Do None
- William Shakespeare : Sonnet 093: So Shall I Live, Supposing Thou Art True
