William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet CXL
Be wise as
thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience
with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me
words, and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting
pain.
If I might teach thee
wit, better it were,
Though not to love,
yet, love to tell me so;--
As testy sick men,
when their deaths be near,
No news but health
from their physicians know;--
For, if I should despair,
I should grow mad,
And in my madness
might speak ill of thee;
Now this ill-wresting
world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by
mad ears believed be.
That I may
not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine
eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
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