William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet CXLIV
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 colour'd ill.
To win me soon to
hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better
angel from my side,
And would corrupt
my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity
with her foul pride.
And whether that my
angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet
not directly tell;
But being both from
me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel
in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
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