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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Sonnet 59: If there be nothing new, but that which is

William Shakespeare·1564–1616
Lines:14Movement:English Renaissance
If there be nothing new, but that which isHath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,Which labouring for invention bear amissThe second burthen of a former child!O! that record could with a backward look,Even of five hundred courses of the sun,Show me your image in some antique book,Since mind at first in character was done!That I might see what the old world could sayTo this composed wonder of your frame;Wh'r we are mended, or wh'r better they,Or whether revolution be the same. O! sure I am the wits of former days, To subjects worse have given admiring praise.