Sonnet 54

Sonnet 54 Rhythm

O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem                 A

By that sweet  ornament  which truth doth give.                   B

The rose looks  fair, but  fairer we it deem                              A

For that  sweet odour, which doth in it live.                            B

The canker blooms have full  as deep a dye                            C

As  the perfumed  tincture  of the roses,                                 D

Hang  on such thorns, and  play  as  wantonly                        C

When summer´s breath their masked  buds  discloses:       D

But, for their virtue only is their show,                                    E

They live unwoo´d, and unrespected fade;                            F

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;                            E

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:              F

And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,                        G

When that shall vade distills your truth.                               G