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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 57 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: BEING YOUR SLAVE, WHAT SHOULD I DO BUT TEND
Last Line: THOUGH YOU DO ANY THING, HE THINKS NO ILL.
Subject(s): ABSENCE; DESIRE; GAYS & LESBIANS; LOVE; SEPARATION; ISOLATION; HOMOEROTICISM; LESBIANS; GAY WOMEN; GAY MEN;

Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.



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