Sonnet 3: Look in Thy Glass and Tell the Face Thou Viewest

III.

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest,

Now is the time that face should form another

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

For where is she so fair, whose un-ear'd womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry ?

Or who is he so fond, will be the tomb

Of his self-love, to stop posterity ?

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime:

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.

But if thou live, remember'd not to be.

Die single, and thine image dies with thee.

William Shakespeare

© Copyright 2026 A.C. Ionescu. All rights Reserved.