Sonnet 115
When I was in twelfth grade, one of my English teachers got the idea that students should memorize poetry. I think this was a fantastic idea and I am grateful for being forced to do this.
That year, I memorized Shakespeare's sonnet 115, and John Donne's The Bait. I still remember both.
I recommend reading sonnets out loud; the written form is a skeleton without raiment.
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer;
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.But reckoning time, whose millioned accidents
Creep in ’twixt vows and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp’st intents,
Divert strong minds to th’ course of alt’ring things—Alas, why, fearing of time’s tyranny,
Might I not then say “Now I love you best,”
When I was certain o’er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?Love is a babe. Then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow.