SONNET 124	PARAPHRASE
If my dear love were but the child of State,	If my love depended on worldly success,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered,	it would be subject to Fortune,
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,	and to the vicissitudes of Time,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered.	as flowers gathered or weeds torn out.
No, it was builded far from accident;	No, it is immune to accident,
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls	it is not injured by success, or affected
Under the blow of thralled discontent,	by the grumbling of people
Whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls.	who are mere slaves of the day's fashion.
It fears not policy, that heretic	It does not fear political power
Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,	with its preoccupation with the mundane,
But all alone stands hugely politic,	but stands alone, its own creation,
That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.	and is affected neither by drought or rain.
To this I witness call the fools of time,	I call as witnesses to this, Time's fools,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.	who have lived for worldly success and and had deathbed conversions.