In thine soft eyes mine portrait brightly shines
when close to thee I gaze upon thy face,
so with return do gaze upon these lines
and much more than thine outline thou shalt trace.
How should I begin; Shakespeare's summer's day?
a summer's day is scant compare to thee,
more like are thou a thousand days of May
when Nature at her best is there to see.
Yet this sonnet is all that I can give,
these fourteen lines upon this vellum plain
and what compare is this while thou dost live —
'tis like the rose without its scarlet stain.
O, scant regard give Shakespeare's sunny clime
when thou exceed all Seasons thru' my rhyme.