Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend; All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due, Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend. Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd; But those same tongues that give thee so thine own In other accents do this praise confound By seeing farther than the eye hath shown. They look into the beauty of thy mind, And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds; Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind, To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds: But why thy odour matcheth not thy show, The solve is this, that thou dost common grow. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RUSSIAN ARMY GOES INTO BAKU by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER ON A VOLUME OF SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY by GEORGE SANTAYANA CONSIDER by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TREES IN WINTER by ARTHUR WILLIAM BEER WRITTEN IN ZIMMERMAN'S SOLITUDE by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS |