Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator Summary of Sonnet 70 in the Table of Contents Notes for Sonnet 70

Shakespeare's Sonnet 70


  1    That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect,
  2    For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
  3    The ornament of beauty is suspect,
  4    A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
  5    So thou be good, slander doth but approve
  6    Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time;
  7    For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
  8    And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.
  9    Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young days,
 10    Either not assail'd or victor being charg'd;
 11    Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
 12    To tie up envy evermore enlarg'd:
 13      If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show,
 14      Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.

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