William Shakespeare, Sonnet xcvii
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
4
What old December's bareness everywhere!
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
8
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
12
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
Notes
line 5: Malone explains as, "This time in which I was remote or absent from thee". [ Back to text ]
Most notes to Shakespeare's sonnets are from Charles Knight's edition, but those in square brackets are mine.