The Sonnets (Modern)
Not Peer Reviewed
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133
¶Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
¶For that deep wound it gives my friend and me;
¶Is't not enough to torture me alone,
1985But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be?
¶Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
¶And my next self thou harder hast engrossed.
¶Of him, myself, and thee I am forsaken,
¶A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed.
1990Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward;
¶But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail.
¶Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
¶Thou canst not then use rigor in my jail.
¶_And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee,
1995_Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
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134
¶So now I have confessed that he is thine,
¶And I myself am mortgaged to thy will,
¶Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine
2000Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still;
¶But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
¶For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
¶He learned but surety-like to write for me,
¶Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
2005The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
¶Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use,
¶And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake;
¶So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
¶_Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me;
2010_He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
¶
135
¶Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
¶And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;
¶More than enough am I, that vex thee still,
2015To thy sweet will making addition thus.
¶Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
¶Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
¶Shall will in others seem right gracious,
¶And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
2020The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
¶And in abundance addeth to his store;
¶So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will
¶One will of mine, to make thy large Will more.
¶_Let no unkind no fair beseechers kill;
2025_Think all but one, and me in that one Will.