From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel: Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content, And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding: Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
Shakespeare Songs
Song Cycle by Michael G. Cunningham (b. 1937)
?. From fairest creature  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 1
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 1, first published 1863
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 1, first published 1857
- GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Reinhold Walesrode) , no title, appears in William Shakspeare's sämmtliche Gedichte, in 1. Sonette, no. 1, first published 1840
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
?. Look in thy glass  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or who is he so fond will be the tomb Of his self-love, to stop posterity? Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime; So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time. But if thou live, remember'd not to be, Die single and thine image dies with thee.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 3
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 3, first published 1863
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 3, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
?. When forty winters  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held: Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use, If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,' Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 2
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 2, first published 1863
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 2, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Total word count: 336