Sonnet · Death & Loss
Sonnet 83: I never saw that you did painting need
I never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
That barren tender of a poet's debt:
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself, being extant, well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dumb;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 83: I never saw that you did painting need” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-83
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 83: I never saw that you did painting need
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Death & Loss
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 83: I never saw that you did painting need 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 6f4d1eda99672598…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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