Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old
by William Shakespeare · 1609
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd,
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv'd;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv'd:
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
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“Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-104
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Published
- 1609
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love, Life
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
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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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 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1609
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 d56325463e43a539…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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