Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator Summary of Sonnet 35 in the Table of Contents Notes for Sonnet 35

Shakespeare's Sonnet 35


  1    No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done:
  2    Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
  3    Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
  4    And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
  5    All men make faults, and even I in this,
  6    Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
  7    Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
  8    Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
  9    For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense — 
 10    Thy adverse party is thy advocate — 
 11    And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
 12    Such civil war is in my love and hate
 13      That I an accessary needs must be
 14      To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
"loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud"

Image source: Seattle Rose Society

<<<  Previous Next  >>>