The Sonnets XVII - Who will believe my verse in time to come
By William Shakespeare
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filld with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches neer touchd earthly faces.
So should my papers, yellowd with their age,
Be scornd, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be termd a poets rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.