Text Examples for
Thespian

For a large selection of our unique and tasteful gifts please visit The Gifts Gallery, our affiliate store.

William Shakespeare:
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.
[ top ]     
Sonnet XVIII:
Shall I compare thee to a warm summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed:
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
So long as men cen breath or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
[ top ]     
Sonnet CXVI::
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
[ top ]     
Wedding Poem:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do not shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short of date:
Sometimes to hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his great complexion dimm’d.
And every fair from fair some time declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d.
But eternal summer shall not fade
Nor loose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade.
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and gives life to thee.
[ top ]     
Don Juan:
CIX Julia had honor, virtue, truth, and love
For Don Alfonso; and she inlay swore,
By all the vows below to powers above,
She never would disgrace the ring she wore,
Nor leave a wish which wisdom might reprove;
And while she pondered this, besides much more,
One hand on Juan's carelessly was thrown,
Quite by mistake--she thought it was her own;

CX Unconsciously she leaned upon the other,
Which played within the tangles of her hair;
And to contend with the thoughts she could not smother
She seemed, by the distraction of her air.
'Twas surely very wrong in Juan's mother
To leave together this imprudent pair,
She who for many years had watched her son so--
I'm very certain mine would not have done so.

CXI The hand which still held Juan's, by degrees
Gently, but palpably confirmed its grasp,
As if it said, "Detain me, if you please;"
Yet there's no doubt she only meant to clasp
His fingers with a pure Platonic squeeze;
She would have shrunk as from a toad, or asp,
Had she imagined such a thing could rouse
A feeling dangerous to a prudent spouse.

CXII I cannot know what Juan thought of this,
But what he did, is much what you would do;
His young lip thanked it with a graceful kiss,
And then, abashed at his own joy, withdrew
In deep despair, lest he had done amiss,--
Love is so very timid when 'tis anew:
She blushed, and frowned not, but she strove to speak,
And held her tongue, her voice was grown so weak.

CXVII And Julia's voice was lost, except in sighs,
Until too late for useful conversation;
The tears were gushing from her gentle eyes,
I wish, indeed, they had not had occasion;
But who, alas! can love, and then be wise?
Not that remorse did not oppose temptation;
A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whispering "I will ne'er consent"--consented
[ top ]