O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give?
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour, which doth in it live.
The canker blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade;
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odours made:
    And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
    When that shall fade, by verse distills your truth.

F. Lygon sets lines 1-12

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See also Mobile for Shakespeare by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati

Text Authorship:

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 54 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Richard Bruce Faith (b. 1926), "Sonnet LIV" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frederick Lygon , "Oh how much more doth beauty beauteous seeme", published [1866], lines 1-12 [ ATTB chorus and piano ], glee; London : Novello ; from the score: "2nd prize Catch Club, 22 June 1866" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ann Sheppard Mounsey (1811 - 1891), "Oh! how much more doth beauty", op. 11 no. 5, published 1836? [ vocal duet for 2 sopranos with piano ], from Six duets in canon for two soprano voices, with an accompaniment for the piano forte, no. 5, London : T. E. Purday [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet LIV", 1864 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 54, first published 1857
• GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Sonetto LIV", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website: 2005-06-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 112