The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics/Book 1/Poem 10

by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 57 (Shakespeare).

x

ABSENCE

Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend
Nor services to do, till you require:

Nor dare I chide the world-without-end-hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu:

Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are, how happy you make those;

So true a fool is love, that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
W. Shakespeare