Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 139

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For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 139 (Shakespeare).

139

O, call not me to justify the wrong
That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;
Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue:
Use power with power, and slay me not by art. 4
Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere; but in my sight,
Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside:
What need'st thou wound with cunning, when thy might
Is more than my o'erpress'd defence can bide? 8
Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows
Her pretty looks have been my enemies;
And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
That they elsewhere might dart their injuries: 12
Yet do not so; but since I am near slain,
Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.

4 by art: by cunning