best sonnets in english

In article <d1d709e4.0409060526.60136618.DeleteThis@posting.google.com>,
Paulinette <ghirlandajo.DeleteThis@voila.fr> said:

 > 1. Let me not to the marriage of true minds...

/Sonnet CXVI/ by William Shakespeare.

LET me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth=3Fs unknown, although his height be taken.
Love =3Fs not Time=3Fs fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle=3Fs compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov=3Fd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov=3Fd.

 > 2. Much have I traveled in the realms of gold...

/On First Looking into Chapman's "Homer"/ by John Keats.

MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne,
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold.
-- Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific -- and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise --
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

 > 3. When I consider how my light is spent...

/On His Blindness/ by John Milton.

WHEN I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man=3Fs work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o=3Fer land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."


They just happened to be some of my favorites.
Thanks for the pleasant distraction.

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Cm~<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->