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Sonnet · Death & Loss

Sonnet 3: Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest

by William Shakespeare

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest

Now is the time that face should form another;

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?

Or who is he so fond will be the tomb,

Of his self-love to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime;

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.

But if thou live, remember'd not to be,

Die single and thine image dies with thee.

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Quick facts

Poem
Sonnet 3: Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Poet
William Shakespeare
Length
14 lines
Form
Sonnet
Themes
Death & Loss, Spring, 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
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 3: Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest 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 4960c28d0574e97c
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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