William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet CXX
That you were
once unkind befriends me now,
And for that sorrow,
which I then did feel,
Needs must I under
my transgression bow,
Unless my nerves were
brass or hammer'd steel.
For if you were by
my unkindness shaken,
As I by yours, you've
pass'd a hell of time;
And I, a tyrant, have
no leisure taken
To weigh how once
I suffer'd in your crime.
O! that our night
of woe might have remember'd
My deepest sense,
how hard true sorrow hits,
And soon to you, as
you to me, then tender'd
The humble salve,
which wounded bosoms fits!
But that your trespass now becomes a fee;
Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.
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