The Sonnets and Other Poems (27 page)

Be wise as thou art cruel, do not
press
¹
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain,
Lest sorrow lend me words and words express
The manner of my
pity-wanting pain
⁴
.
If I might teach thee
wit
⁵
, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so,
As
testy
⁷
sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians
know
⁸
.
For if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee.
Now this
ill-wresting world
¹¹
is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believèd be.
      That I may not be
so
¹³
, nor thou
belied
,
     
Bear thine eyes straight
¹⁴
, though thy proud heart
go wide
.

In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand
errors
²
note,
But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who
in despite of
⁴
view is pleased to dote.
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling to
base touches
⁶
prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any
sensual feast
⁸
with thee alone.
But my
five wits
⁹
nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who
leaves unswayed the likeness of a man
¹¹
,
Thy proud heart’s slave and
vassal
¹²
wretch to be:
      Only my
plague
¹³
thus far I count my gain,
      That she that makes me sin
awards me pain
¹⁴
.

Love is my sin and thy
dear
¹
virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on
sinful
²
loving.
O, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it
merits
⁴
not reproving,
Or if it do, not from those lips of thine
That have
profaned
⁶
their scarlet ornaments
And
sealed
⁷
false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robbed others’ beds’ revenues of their rents
⁸
.
Be it
⁹
lawful I love thee, as thou lov’st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine
importune
¹⁰
thee.
Root
¹¹
pity in thy heart, that when it grows,
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
      If thou dost seek to have what thou dost
hide
¹³
,
      By
self-example
¹⁴
mayst thou be denied.

Lo, as a
careful
¹
housewife runs to catch
One of her
feathered creatures
²
broke away
,
Sets down her babe and makes all swift
dispatch
³
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay,
Whilst her neglected child
holds her in chase
⁵
,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing
⁸
her poor infant’s discontent:
So runn’st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I, thy babe, chase thee afar behind.
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
And play the mother’s part, kiss me, be
kind
¹²
.
      So
will
¹³
I pray that thou mayst have thy Will,
      If thou turn back and my loud crying
still
¹⁴
.

Two
loves
¹
I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do
suggest
²
me
still
:
The better angel is a man right
fair
³
,
The worser spirit a woman
coloured ill
⁴
.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her
foul pride
⁸
.
And whether that my angel be turned
fiend
⁹
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both
from me
¹¹
, both to each
friend
,
I guess one angel in another’s
hell
¹²
.
      Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
      Till my bad angel
fire my good one out
¹⁴
.

Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said ‘I hate’
To me that languished for her sake.
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight
⁵
in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving
gentle doom
⁷
,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
‘I hate’ she altered with an end
That followed it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.
      ‘I hate’ from
hate away she threw
      And
¹³
saved my life, saying ‘not you’.

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
[        ]
these
rebel powers
²
that thee
array
,
Why dost thou
pine
³
within and suffer
dearth
,
Painting thy outward walls so costly
gay
⁴
?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading
mansion
⁶
spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy
charge
⁸
? Is this thy body’s end?
Then, soul, live thou upon
thy servant
⁹
’s loss
And let that pine to
aggravate
¹⁰
thy store,
Buy
terms divine
¹¹
in selling
hours of dross
,
Within be fed,
without
¹²
be rich no more:
      So shalt thou
feed on death
¹³
, that feeds on men,
      And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.

My love is as a fever, longing
still
¹
For that which longer
nurseth
²
the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the
ill
³
,
Th’uncertain
⁴
sickly
appetite
to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me and I desperate now
approve
⁷
Desire is death
⁸
,
which physic did except
.
Past cure I am, now reason is
past care
⁹
;
And frantic-mad with
evermore
¹⁰
unrest,
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth
¹²
vainly
expressed.
      For I have sworn thee
fair
¹³
and thought thee bright,
      Who art as
black
¹⁴
as hell, as dark as night.

O me, what eyes hath
love
¹
put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight,
Or if they have, where is my judgement fled
That
censures falsely
⁴
what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love’s eye
⁸
is not so true as all men’s ‘no’.
How can it? O, how can love’s eye be true,
That is so
vexed
¹⁰
with
watching
and with tears?
No marvel then
though
¹¹
I
mistake my view
:
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
      O cunning love, with tears thou keep’st me blind,
      Lest eyes well-seeing thy
foul faults
¹⁴
should find.

Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not,
When I against myself with thee
partake
²
?
Do I not think on thee, when I
forgot
Am of
³
myself, all
tyrant
⁴
for thy sake?
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend?
On whom frown’st thou that I do fawn upon?
Nay, if thou
lour’st
⁷
on me, do I not
spend
Revenge upon myself with
present moan
⁸
?
What merit do I in myself
respect
⁹
,
That is
so proud thy service to despise
¹⁰
,
When
all my best doth worship thy defect
¹¹
,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?
      But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind:
     
Those that can see thou lov’st
¹⁴
, and I am blind.

O, from what power hast thou this powerful might
With
insufficiency
²
my heart to
sway
,
To make me
give the lie to
³
my true sight
And swear that
brightness doth not grace the day
⁴
?
Whence hast thou this
becoming of things ill
⁵
,
That in the very
refuse of thy deeds
⁶
There is such strength and
warrantize
⁷
of skill
That in my mind thy worst all best exceeds?
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
O, though I love what others do
abhor
¹¹
,
With others thou shouldst not abhor my state.
      If thy unworthiness raised love in me,
      More worthy I to be beloved of thee.

Love is too young
¹
to know what conscience is,
Yet who knows not
conscience
²
is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater,
urge not my amiss
³
,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.
For, thou
betraying me
⁵
, I do betray
My
nobler part
⁶
to my
gross
body’s treason.
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love:
flesh stays no further reason
⁸
,
But
rising
⁹
at thy name doth point out thee
As his
triumphant prize
¹⁰
. Proud of this
pride
,
He is contented thy poor
drudge
¹¹
to be,
To
stand in thy affairs, fall
¹²
by thy side.
      No
want
¹³
of conscience
hold
it that I call
      Her ‘love’ for whose dear love I rise and fall.

In loving thee thou know’st I am
forsworn
¹
,
But thou art twice forsworn
to me love swearing
²
:
In
act
³
thy
bed-vow
broke and new faith torn
In vowing
new hate after new love bearing
⁴
.
But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjured most,
For all my vows are oaths but to
misuse
⁷
thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost.
For I have sworn deep oaths
of thy deep kindness
⁹
,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy,
And to
enlighten
¹¹
thee gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see.
      For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured
eye
¹³
,
      To swear against the truth so
foul
¹⁴
a lie.

Cupid
¹
laid by his brand and fell asleep.
A maid of
Dian
²
’s this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly
steep
³
In a cold valley-fountain
of that ground
⁴
,
Which borrowed from this holy fire of love
A
dateless
⁶
lively heat,
still to endure
,
And
grew
⁷
a seething bath, which yet men
prove
Against
strange
⁸
maladies a
sovereign
cure.
But at my mistress’ eye love’s brand
new-fired
⁹
,
The
boy
¹⁰
for trial
needs would
touch my breast
.
I, sick
withal
¹¹
, the
help of bath
desired,
And thither
hied
¹²
, a sad
distempered
guest,
      But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
      Where Cupid got new fire — my mistress’ eyes.

The
little Love-god
¹
lying once asleep
Laid by his side his
heart-inflaming brand
²
,
Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep
Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand
The fairest
votary
⁵
took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warmed,
And so the
general
⁷
of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.
This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from love’s fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For
men diseased
¹²
: but I, my mistress’
thrall
,
      Came there for cure, and this by that I prove:
      Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.