| Sonnet 99 |
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Sonnet 99 in the 1609 Quarto |
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The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells
If not from my love’s breath, the purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells?
In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly dyed,
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stol’n thy hair,
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair:
A third nor red, nor white, had stol’n of both,
And to his robb'ry had annex’d thy breath,
But for his theft in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
But sweet, or colour it had stol’n from thee. |
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—William Shakespeare |
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Sonnet 99 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. The sonnet is generally grouped with the preceding two in the sequence, with which it shares a dominant trope and image set: the beloved is described in terms of, and judged superior to, nature and its beauties.
