The Sonnets and Other Poems (28 page)
Read The Sonnets and Other Poems Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
From off a hill whose
concave womb
1
reworded
A
plaintful
2
story from a
sist’ring
vale
,
My spirits
t’attend
3
this double voice
accorded
And down I laid to
list
4
the sad-tuned tale,
Ere
5
long espied a
fickle
maid
full
pale,
Tearing of
papers
6
, breaking rings
atwain
,
Storming her world with sorrow’s wind and rain.
Upon her head a
plaited hive of straw
8
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the
thought
10
might think sometime it saw
The
carcass
11
of a beauty
spent and done
.
Time had not scythèd all that youth begun,
Nor youth
all quit
13
but, spite of heaven’s
fell
rage,
Some beauty peeped through
lattice
14
of
seared
age.
Oft did she
heave
15
her
napkin
to her
eyne
Which on it had
conceited characters
16
,
Laund’ring
17
the
silken figures
in the
brine
That
seasoned
18
woe had
pelleted
in tears
And often reading what contents it bears,
As often shrieking
undistinguished
20
woe
In clamours of all
size
21
, both high and low.
Sometimes her
levelled
22
eyes their
carriage
ride
As
23
they did
batt’ry
to the
spheres
intend:
Sometime diverted their poor
balls
24
are tied
To
th’orbèd
25
earth; sometimes they do extend
Their view
right on
26
,
anon
their gazes
lend
To every place at once
and, nowhere fixed,
The mind and sight distractedly
commixed
28
.
Her hair,
nor loose nor
29
tied in formal plait,
Proclaimed in her a careless hand of pride
For some, untucked, descended her
sheaved
31
hat,
Hanging her pale and
pinèd
32
cheek beside,
Some in her
threaden fillet
33
still did
bide
,
And true to bondage would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.
A thousand
favours
36
from a
maund
she drew
Of amber, crystal and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw
Upon whose weeping
margent
39
she was
set
,
Like
usury
40
, applying wet to wet,
Or
monarch’s hands that lets not bounty fall
Where want cries some, but where excess begs all
41
.
Of folded
schedules
43
had she many a one
Which she perused, sighed, tore and gave the
flood
44
,
Cracked many a
ring of posied gold and bone
45
Bidding them find their
sepulchres
46
in mud,
Found yet more letters sadly penned in blood,
With
sleided
48
silk
feat
and
affectedly
Enswathed
49
and sealed to
curious
secrecy.
These often bathed she in her
fluxive
50
eyes
And often kissed and often
gave to tear
51
,
Cried, ‘O false blood, thou register of lies,
What
unapprovèd
53
witness dost thou bear!
Ink would have seemed more black and damnèd here!
54
’
This said,
in top of
55
rage the lines she
rents
,
Big discontent so breaking their contents
56
.
A
reverend
57
man that grazed his cattle
nigh
—
Sometime
58
a
blusterer
that the
ruffle
knew
Of court, of city, and had
let go by
The swiftest hours, observèd as they flew
59
—
Towards this
afflicted fancy
61
fastly
drew
And, privileged by age,
desires
62
to know
In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.
So
slides he down upon his grainèd bat
64
,
And
comely-distant
65
sits he by her side,
When he again desires her, being sat,
Her grievance with his hearing to
divide
67
.
If that from him there may be
aught
68
applied
Which may her suffering
ecstasy
69
assuage,
’Tis promised in the charity of age.
‘
Father
71
,’ she says, ‘though in me you behold
The injury of many a
blasting
72
hour,
Let it not tell your judgement I am old:
Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power,
I might as yet have been a
spreading
75
flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
Love to myself and to no love beside.
‘But woe is me! Too early I
attended
78
A youthful
suit
79
— it was to gain my
grace
—
O, one by nature’s
outwards
80
so commended
That maidens’ eyes
stuck over all
81
his face.
Love
82
lacked a dwelling and made him her place
And when in his fair parts she did abide,
She was new lodged and newly deified.
‘His browny locks did hang in
crooked
85
curls
And every
light occasion
86
of the wind
Upon his lips
their silken parcels hurls
87
.
What’s sweet
to do, to do will aptly find
88
:
Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind,
For on his visage was in
little
90
drawn
What largeness thinks in paradise was
sawn
91
.
‘Small show of man was yet upon his chin,
His
phoenix down
93
began but to appear
Like
unshorn
94
velvet on that
termless
skin
Whose
bare out-bragged the web it seemed to wear
95
.
Yet showed his visage by that
cost
96
more
dear
,
And
nice affections
97
wavering stood in doubt
If best were as it was, or best without.
‘His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For
maiden-tongued
100
he was and thereof
free
;
Yet if men
moved
101
him, was he such a storm
As oft ’twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet unruly though they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth
Did
livery
105
falseness in a
pride
of truth
104
.
‘Well could he ride and often men would say,
“That horse his
mettle
107
from his rider takes.
Proud of subjection, noble by the
sway
108
,
What
rounds
109
, what
bounds
, what
course
, what
stop
he makes!”
And
controversy
110
hence a question takes:
Whether the horse by him became his deed
111
,
Or
he
112
his
manage
by th’well-doing steed.
‘But quickly on this side the verdict went:
His
real habitude
114
gave life and grace
To
appertainings
115
and to ornament,
Accomplished in himself, not in his
case
116
:
All
aids
117
, themselves made fairer by their place,
Came for additions
118
, yet their
purposed trim
Pieced not
119
his grace, but were all graced by him.
‘So on the tip of his
subduing
120
tongue
All kind of arguments and question deep,
All
replication
122
prompt and reason strong,
For his advantage
still did wake and sleep
123
,
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep:
He had the
dialect
125
and
different
skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will
126
,
‘
That
127
he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old and sexes both enchanted
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he
haunted
130
:
Consents bewitched, ere he desire have granted,
And dialogued for him what he would say,
Asked their own wills and made their wills obey
131
.
‘Many there were that did his picture get,
To serve their eyes, and
in it put their mind
135
Like fools that in th’imagination set
The goodly
objects
137
which
abroad
they find
Of lands and mansions,
theirs in thought
138
assigned
,
And
labouring in more pleasures to bestow them
139
Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.
‘So many have, that never touched his hand,
Sweetly supposed
them
142
mistress of his heart.
My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was
my own fee-simple
144
, not in
part
,
What with his art in youth and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his
charmèd
146
power,
Reserved the stalk and gave him all my
flower
147
.
‘Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desirèd yielded
149
.
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I mine honour shielded.
Experience for me many
bulwarks
152
builded
Of
proofs new-bleeding
153
, which remained the
foil
Of this false jewel and his amorous
spoil
154
.
‘But, ah, who ever shunned by
precedent
155
The destined ill she must herself
assay
156
?
Or
forced examples, gainst her own content,
To put the by-past perils in her way
157
?
Counsel may
stop awhile
159
what will not
stay
:
For when we
rage
160
, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our
wits
161
more
keen
.
‘Nor gives it satisfaction to our
blood
162
That we must curb it upon others’
proof
163
;
To be
forbod
164
the
sweets
that seems so good,
For fear of harms that preach
in our behoof
165
.
O appetite, from judgement stand aloof.
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though reason weep and cry, “It is thy last.”
‘For further I could say, “This man’s untrue,
And
knew
170
the patterns of his foul
beguiling
,
Heard where his
plants
171
in others’
orchards
grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling,
Knew vows were ever
brokers
173
to
defiling
,
Thought
characters and words
174
merely but
art
And bastards of his foul
adulterate
175
heart.”
‘And long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he ’gan besiege me: “Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity
And be not of my holy vows afraid.
That’s
180
to ye sworn to none was ever said:
For feasts of love I have been called unto,
Till now did ne’er invite nor never woo.
‘ “All my offences that
abroad
183
you see
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind:
Love made them not.
With acture they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind
185
:
They sought their shame that so their shame did find
187
And so much less of shame in me remains
By how much of me their reproach contains
188
.
‘ “Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
Or my affection put to th’smallest
teen
192
,
Or any of my
leisures
193
ever charmed.
Harm have I done to them, but ne’er was harmed:
Kept hearts in
liveries
195
, but mine own was free,
And reigned, commanding in his monarchy.
‘ “Look here, what tributes
wounded fancies
197
sent me
Of
pallid
198
pearls and rubies red as blood,
Figuring
199
that they their passions likewise lent me
Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
In bloodless white and the encrimsoned mood,
Effects
202
of terror and dear modesty,
Encamped in hearts but fighting outwardly.
‘ “And, lo, behold these
talents
204
of their hair,
With
twisted
205
metal amorously
impleached
,
I have received from many a
several fair
206
,
Their kind acceptance
207
weepingly beseeched,
With
th’annexions
208
of fair gems enriched,
And
deep-brained
209
sonnets that did amplify
Each stone’s
dear
210
nature, worth and quality.