Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
Sonnet 6Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled: Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed. That use is not forbidden usury, Which happies those that pay the willing loan; That's for thy self to breed another thee, Or ten times happier, be it ten for one; Ten times thy self were happier than thou art, If ten of thine ten times refigured thee: Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart, Leaving thee living in posterity? Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir. Buy and Download...Click HERE
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Don't let the horrid winter of old age destroy your flower of beauty before you distil the essence of it. [See previous sonnet.] Put your essence into some safe place, don't stifle it in miserliness.
To lend beauty [to make an heir] is not the same as lending money for profit, as the borrowers are made happier by paying back the debt. Were there ten of you, you'd be ten times happier than you are now. If you multiply yourself like this, what damage can Death do you, when you still live in them after your own death?
Don't be headstrong. You're too beautiful to be married to Death, and leave only worms as heirs.
To lend beauty [to make an heir] is not the same as lending money for profit, as the borrowers are made happier by paying back the debt. Were there ten of you, you'd be ten times happier than you are now. If you multiply yourself like this, what damage can Death do you, when you still live in them after your own death?
Don't be headstrong. You're too beautiful to be married to Death, and leave only worms as heirs.