[1] When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
[2] And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
[3] Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
[4] Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:
[5] Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,
[6] Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
[7] To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,
[8] Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
[9] How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,
[10] If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine
[11] Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'
[12] Proving his beauty by succession thine!
[13] This were to be new made when thou art old,
[14] And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
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