Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 105

by William Shakespeare

For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 105 (Shakespeare).

Layout 2

105

Let not my love be call'd idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so. 4
Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
Therefore my verse, to constancy confin'd,
One thing expressing, leaves out difference. 8
'Fair, kind, and true,' is all my argument,
'Fair, kind, and true,' varying to other words;
And in this change is my invention spent,
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. 12
'Fair, kind, and true' have often liv'd alone,
Which three till now never kept seat in one.

 

2 show: appear
8 difference: variety
10 varying to other words: the thought expressed in other words