Sonnet 62. Craig, W.J., ed. 1914. The Oxford Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.

Sonnet LXII.

“Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye”

SIN of self-love possesseth all mine eye
And all my soul and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,	5
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp’d with tann’d antiquity,	10
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
’Tis thee, myself,—that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.