The Sonnets | Page 8

loved her dearly,
That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
A loss
in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders thus I will
excuse ye,

Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I love her,
And
for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suff'ring my friend for my
sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
And

losing her, my friend hath found that loss,
Both find each other, and I
lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross,
But
here's the joy, my friend and I are one,
Sweet flattery, then she loves
but me alone.
43
When most I wink then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day
they view things unrespected,
But when I sleep, in dreams they look
on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou
whose shadow shadows doth make bright
How would thy shadow's
form, form happy show,
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,

When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would (I say)
mine eyes be blessed made,
By looking on thee in the living day,

When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade,
Through heavy sleep on
sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,

And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance
should not stop my way,
For then despite of space I would be brought,

From limits far remote, where thou dost stay,
No matter then
although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from
thee,
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,
As soon as
think the place where he would be.
But ah, thought kills me that I am
not thought
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But
that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend, time's leisure
with my moan.
Receiving nought by elements so slow,
But heavy
tears, badges of either's woe.
45
The other two, slight air, and purging fire,
Are both with thee,
wherever I abide,
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These
present-absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker
elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,

My life being
made of four, with two alone,
Sinks down to death, oppressed with
melancholy.
Until life's composition be recured,
By those swift
messengers returned from thee,
Who even but now come back again

assured,
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me.
This told, I joy, but
then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,
How to divide the
conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye, my heart thy picture's sight would
bar,
My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right,
My heart doth
plead that thou in him dost lie,
(A closet never pierced with crystal
eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy
fair appearance lies.
To side this title is impanelled
A quest of
thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined

The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part.
As thus, mine eye's
due is thy outward part,
And my heart's right, thy inward love of
heart.
47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth
good turns now unto the other,
When that mine eye is famished for a
look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother;
With my
love's picture then my eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids
my heart:
Another time mine eye is my heart's guest,
And in his
thoughts of love doth share a part.
So either by thy picture or my love,

Thy self away, art present still with me,
For thou not farther than
my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them, and they with thee.

Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart, to
heart's and eye's delight.
48
How careful was I when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest
bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of
falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles
are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou best of
dearest, and mine only care,

Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.

Thee have I not locked up in any chest,
Save where thou art not,
though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From
whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part,
And even thence thou
wilt be stol'n I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.

49
Against that time (if ever that time come)
When I shall see thee
frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,

Called to that audit by advised respects,
Against that time when thou
shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye,

When love converted from the thing it was
Shall reasons find of
settled gravity;
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the
knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand, against my self
uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons