William Shakespeare Sonnet 19 - Devouring time blunt thou the lion's paws

Sonnet 19 Devouring time blunt thou the lion's paws .

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,

And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;

Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,

And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,

To the wide world and all her fading sweets;

But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:

O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,

Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;

Him in thy course untainted do allow

For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.

Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,

My love shall in my verse ever live young. 

William Shakespeare Sonnet 19 - Devouring time blunt thou the lion's paws.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with issues such as love, the passage of time, beauty and mortality, Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form . (more sonnets)