Sonnet XVIII. As where two raging venoms are united

Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)

AS where two raging venoms are united,

Which of themselves dissevered life would sever,

The sickly wretch of sickness is acquited,

Which else should die, or pine in torments ever;

So fire and frost, that hold my heart in seizure,

Restore those ruins which themselves have wrought,

Where if apart they both had had their pleasure,

The earth long since her fatal claim had caught.

Thus two united deaths keep me from dying;

I burn in ice, and quake amidst the fire,

No hope midst these extremes or favour spying;

Thus love makes me a martyr in his ire.

So that both cold and heat do rather feed

My ceaseless pains, than any comfort breed.