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-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.
“O! how I faint when I of you do write”
Sonnet LXXX
O! HOW I faint when I of you do write |
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Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, |
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And in the praise thereof spends all his might, |
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To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame! |
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But since your worth—wide as the ocean is,— |
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The humble as the proudest sail doth bear, |
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My saucy bark, inferior far to his, |
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On your broad main doth wilfully appear. |
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Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat, |
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Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride; |
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Or, being wrack’d, I am a worthless boat, |
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He of tall building and of goodly pride: |
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Then if he thrive and I be cast away, |
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The worst was this;—my love was my decay. |
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