Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 80
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For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 80 (Shakespeare).
80
O, how I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame! 4
But since your worth,—wide as the ocean is,—
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy bark, inferior far to his,
On your broad main doth wilfully appear. 8
Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat,
Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;
Or, being wrack'd, I am a worthless boat,
He of tall building and of goodly pride: 12
Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this;—my love was my decay.
2 a better spirit; cf. n.
8 wilfully: eagerly
11 wrack'd: wrecked