Shall I compare thee to a snowflake?
thou art more pure and perfectly made:
Cold winters do upset the placid pace of lake,
And snow's fall hath all too short a shade.
Sometime too strong the song of snow recites,
And often is his own monologue declined;
And every piece from piece sometimes rewrites,
Since the secret hath not been well defined.
But thy transient beauty shall not stay,
Nor lose tenderness of that sight thou gaze,
Nor shall Apollo brag thou vanish in his gay,
When in eternal lines to time thou amaze:
So long as winters can exist, or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives youth to thee.
LM. 2017.04.29