Sonnets

Sonnet 139

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

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See its words in the cloud.

Modern spelling for reading. The edition is public domain in the United States. Edition source.