•    [Wither’s Song, or “Sonnet,” appeared first in his “Fidelia” in 1615, and later with some changes in “Fair Virtue,” 1622. Jonson’s parody, here given, came out in a Collection of Verses, in 1620.]

    SHALL I mine affections slack,
    ’Cause I see a woman’s Black?
    Or myself, with care cast down,
    ’Cause I see a woman Brown?
    Be She blacker than the night,...

  • Sonnet Xviii.
    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 dimmed:
    And every fair from fair sometime declines,
    By chance, or...