Sonnet 54: Because I Breathe

Because I breathe not love to every one,

Nor do not use set colours for to wear,

Nor nourish special locks of vowed hair,

Nor give each speech a full point of a groan,

The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan

Of them who in their lips Love's standard bear,

"What, he!" say they of me, "now I dare swear

He cannot love. No, no, let him alone."—

And think so still, so Stella know my mind!

Profess indeed I do not Cupid's art;

But you, fair maids, at length this true shall find,

That his right badge is worn but in the heart.

Dumb swans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove:

They love indeed who quake to say they love.