Sonnet 70 - That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 70 That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect.

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,

For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;

The ornament of beauty is suspect,

A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.

So thou be good, slander doth but approve

Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time;

For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,

And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.

Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young days,

Either not assail'd or victor being charged;

Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,

To tie up envy evermore enlarged:

If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show,

Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe. 

Sonnet 70 That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, by William Shakespeare .

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)