English poem
Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air, and purging fire
The other two, slight air, and purging fire Are both with thee, wherever I abide; The first my thought, the other my desire, These present-absent with swift motion slide. For when these quicker elements are gone In tender embassy of love to thee, My life, being made of four, with two alone Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy; Until life's composition be recur'd By those swift messengers return'd from thee, Who even but now come back again, assur'd, Of thy fair health, recounting it to me: This told, I joy; but then no longer glad, I send them back again, and straight grow sad.
More by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 41: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
- Sonnet 42: That thou hast her it is not all my grief
- Sonnet 43: When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
- Sonnet 44: If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
- Sonnet 46: Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
- Sonnet 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
- Sonnet 48: How careful was I when I took my way
- Sonnet 49: Against that time, if ever that time come