Sonnet · Love

Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state

by William Shakespeare

Reading room

1If my dear love were but the child of state,

2It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd,

3As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,

4Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.

5No, it was builded far from accident;

6It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls

7Under the blow of thralled discontent,

8Whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls:

9It fears not policy, that heretic,

10Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,

11But all alone stands hugely politic,

12That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.

13 To this I witness call the fools of time,

14 Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.

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“Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-124

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state
Poet: William Shakespeare
Length: 14 lines
Form: Sonnet
Themes: Love, Nature, Childhood

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 9-12 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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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 124: If my dear love were but the child of state 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 3b032df4c0fa59e8…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Sonnet Love Nature Childhood

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