Sonnet 63: Against My Love Shall Be As I Am Now

Against my love shall be as I am now, With Time’s injurious hand crush’d and o’erworn; When hours have drain’d his blood and fill’d his brow With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn Hath travell’d on to age’s steepy night; And all those beauties whereof now he’s king Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight, Stealing away the treasure of his spring; For such a time do I now fortify Against confounding age’s cruel knife, That he shall never cut from memory My sweet love’s beauty, though my lover’s life: His beauty shall in these black lines be seen, And they shall live, and he in them still green.