Shakespeare's Sonnets: How like a winter hath my absence been

Shakespeare's Sonnets: How like a winter hath my absence been

Sonnet 97

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): g1r.
1How like a winter hath my absence been
2From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
3What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,
4What old December's bareness every where!
5And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,
6The teeming autumn big with rich increase,
7Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
8Like widowed wombs after their lord's decease;
11For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
12And thou away, the very birds are mute,
13    Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
14    That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

Notes

9] issue] offspring. Back to Line
10] hope] prospect. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Form