Sonnet 4

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 tomb’d with thee,

Which, usèd, lives th’ executor to be.

Wasteful love. Why do you spend

Your legacy on yourself?

Nature gave you beauty to lend,

Not to own: free as she is free herself.

So stingy beauty: why do you abuse

The generosity of love’s world?

Why do you try to profit on the gift whose

Value is too high to be sold?

For having commerce with yourself alone,

You play the salesman at your own loss.

For when the auditor comes after you’re gone,

Your worth shall have become much less.

All that beauty shall be turned to dust

Which, if you’d share it, would last.