William Shakespeare[推薦]

I had rather be a toad


O curse of marriage!
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses.

William Shakespeare

What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty!
in form, in moving, how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world!
the paragon of animals!
And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
man delights not me; no, nor woman neither,
though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

William Shakespeare

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use
If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse',
Proving his beauty by succession thine.
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

William Shakespeare

SHALL I compare thee to a summer』s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer』s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm』d;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance, or nature』s changing course, untrimm』d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow』st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wand』rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow』st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

  thee (pronoun): you (old English)
thou (pronoun): you (old English)
art (verb): are (old English - verb 'to be')
temperate (adjective): mild; pleasant; warm
do shake: note use of auxiliary 'do' in present simple positive. This is unusual but perfectly normal for stress, politeness or poetic effect.
bud (noun): first growth on a plant or flower
lease (noun): period, time, duration
hath (verb): has (old English - verb 'to have')
eye of heaven: Shakespeare is referring to the sun
complexion (noun): colour; appearance
fair (adjective): attractive; beautiful; handsome; lovely
decline (verb): to become less; to decrease
thy (adjective): your (old English)
eternal (adjective): endless; everlasting; infinite; permanent
fade (verb): to decrease; to decline; to dissolve
brag (verb): to boast; to tell everybody triumphantly
wand'rest (verb): old English - verb 'to wander': to walk without direction; to roam
shade (noun): shadow; darkness; gloom; obscurity
growst (verb): old English - verb 'to grow'
so long: as long

William Shakespeare

Weary with toil I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind when body's work's expired;
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see;
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo, thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.

William Shakespeare

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who moving others are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow -
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces,
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die;
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity;
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds:
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.