Sonnet 13

1 O that you were your self, but love you are
2 No longer yours, than you yourself here live,
3 Against this coming end you should prepare,
4 And your sweet semblance to some other give.
5 So should that beauty which you hold in lease
6 Find no determination, then you were
7 Yourself again after yourself’s decease,
8 When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
9 Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
10 Which husbandry in honour might uphold,
11 Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day
12 And barren rage of death’s eternal cold?
13 O none but unthrifts, dear my love you know,
14 You had a father, let your son say so.