Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any
1For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
2Who for thy self art so unprovident.
3Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belov'd of many,
4But that thou none lov'st is most evident:
5For thou art so possess'd with murderous hate,
6That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire,
7Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
8Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
9O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind:
10Shall hate be fairer lodg'd than gentle love?
11Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
12Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove:
13 Make thee another self for love of me,
14 That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-10
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 10-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a sonnet, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Shakespeare1564–1616
- Source record
- PoetryDBSonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 eca337a74e43f3c5…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
More poems like this
Sonnet 100: Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 101: O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 102: My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 107: Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
William Shakespeare