Take, Oh Take Those Lips Away

By William Shakespeare 1564–1616 William Shakespeare

Take, oh take those lips away,

That so sweetly were forsworne,

And those eyes: the breake of day,

Lights that doe mislead the Morne;

But my kisses bring againe, bring againe,

Seales of love, but seal’d in vaine, seal’d in vaine.

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Poet William Shakespeare 1564–1616

POET’S REGION England

SCHOOL / PERIOD Renaissance

Subjects Relationships, Love, Infatuation & Crushes, Heartache & Loss, Realistic & Complicated

Poetic Terms Rhymed Stanza

More about this poem

While William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays, he became famous first as a poet. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly encoded in them, the nondramatic writings have traditionally been pushed to the margins of the Shakespeare industry. Yet the study of his nondramatic poetry can illuminate Shakespeare's . . .

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