Shakespeare's Sonnets: Like as to make our appetites more keen

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Like as to make our appetites more keen

Sonnet 118

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): h1v.
1Like as to make our appetites more keen,
2With eager compounds we our palate urge,
3As to prevent our maladies unseen
4We sicken to shun sickness when we purge.
5Ev'n so being full of your ne'er cloying sweetness,
6To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;
7And sick of welfare found a kind of meetness
8To be diseas'd ere that there was true needing.
9Thus policy in love t'anticipate
10The ills that were not, grew to faults assured
11And brought to medicine a healthful state
12Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured.
13    But thence I learn and find the lesson true,
14    Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.

Notes

2] eager] bitter. urge] intensify. Back to Line
4] purge] vomit, excrete, bloodlet (to void bad humours). Back to Line
5] Ev'n] Euen Q. ne'er] nere Q. Extrametrical, with lines 6-8. Back to Line
7] sick of welfare] made ill by well-being. meetness] appropriateness. Back to Line
9] policy] expedience. Back to Line
12] rank] swollen, full. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet