147
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please. 4
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except. 8
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly express'd; 12
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
148
O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight;
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright? 4
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so true as all men's: no. 8
How can it? O, how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vex'd with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears. 12
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.
6 kept: followed
7 approve: prove that
8 which physic did except: (Desire) which objected to the physic (of Reason)
4 censures: judges
10 watching: wakefulness
