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William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Oh how thy worth with manners may I sing
Sonnet 39


              1Oh how thy worth with manners may I sing
              2When thou art all the better part of me?
              3What can mine own praise to mine own self bring,
              4And what is't but mine own when I praise thee?
              5Even for this, let us divided live,
              6And our dear love lose name of single one,
              7That by this separation I may give
              8That due to thee which thou deserv'st alone.
              9Oh absence, what a torment would'st thou prove,
            10Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave
            11To entertain the time with thoughts of love,
            12Which time and thoughts so sweetly dost deceive,
            13    And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
            14    By praising him here who doth hence remain.

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Notes

2] the better part] sometimes an allusion to a friend, the soul, a spouse (OED, "better, a., 3c).

5] Even for this] For exactly this reason.

10] sour] disagreeable.

12] dost] the second-person form of the verb suggests that the beloved is meant as the subject, although grammatically it is "time and thoughts" .

13] thou] absence (line 9). one twain] two of one.


Online text copyright © 2012, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): d1r.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/23

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg


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