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Sonnet CXXIII. [No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:]

by William Shakespeare, 1609

No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
Thy pyramids built up with newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
They are but dressings of a former sight.
Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old;
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them told.
Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past,
For thy records and what we see doth lie,
Made more or less by thy continual haste.
      This I do vow and this shall ever be;
      I will be true despite thy scythe and thee.

Published in Shakespeare's Sonnets
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