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Sonnet 4: Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend, By: William Shakespeare

October 12, 2026 by Editors

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Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy?
Nature’s bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free:
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traffic with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive:
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,
Which, used, lives th’ executor to be.

Read all of William Shakespeare's poems · About William Shakespeare

More by William Shakespeare

  • Sonnet 5: Those Hours, That With Gentle Work Did Frame
  • Sonnet 6: Then Let Not Winter's Ragged Hand Deface
  • Sonnet 7: Lo! In The Orient When The Gracious Light
  • Sonnet 8: Music To Hear, Why Hear'st Thou Music Sadly?
  • Sonnet 9: Is It For Fear To Wet A Widow's Eye

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