William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Sonnet 57
1Being your slave, what should I do but tend
2Upon the hours and times of your desire?
3I have no precious time at all to spend,
4Nor services to do till you require.
5Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
6Whil'st I (my sov'reign) watch the clock for you,
7Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,
8When you have bid your servant once adieu.
9Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
10Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
11But like a sad slave stay and think of nought
12Save where you are, how happy you make those.
13 So true a fool is love, that in your will
14 (Though you do any thing) he thinks no ill.
Notes
5] world-without-end] OED cites Shakespeare's LLL V.2.799, "A time me thinkes too short, / To make a world-without-end bargaine in."
6] sov'reign] soueraine Q.
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:
Publication date note: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): d4v.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/24
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
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