When in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes,
I all alone beweepe my out-cast state,
And trouble deaf heauen with my bootless cries,
And look upon my selfe and curse my fate.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possesed,
Desiring this mans art,and that mans scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Happly I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the Lark at break of day arising)
 From sullen earth sings hymns at Heavens gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with Kings.
 
 

73.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
   This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
 

116.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to move:
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his highth be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
 

144.

 Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still,
The better angel is a man right fair:
The worser spirit a woman collour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell my female euill,
Tempteth my better angel from my sight,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil:
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd find,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in anothers hell.
   Yet this shall I ne'r know but live in doubt,
   Till my bad angel fire my good one out.