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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Sonnet 81: Or I shall live your epitaph to make

William Shakespeare·1564–1616
Lines:14Movement:English Renaissance
Or I shall live your epitaph to make,Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;From hence your memory death cannot take,Although in me each part will be forgotten.Your name from hence immortal life shall have,Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:The earth can yield me but a common grave,When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.Your monument shall be my gentle verse,Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse,When all the breathers of this world are dead; You still shall live,--such virtue hath my pen,-- Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.