Print-friendly poem
← Back to Find a poem to recite · Reader / work page ·
Sonnet 49
William Shakespeare · 1609
Catalog grade guidance: 9–12 — English sonnet; dense metaphor—best with notes for younger high-school readers.
15 content lines · 117 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 5 sec (approx.)
Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #1041, Shakespeare's Sonnets.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.
XLIX
Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call’d to that audit by advis’d respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity;
Against that time do I ensconce me here,
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand, against my self uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.