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Francis T. Palgrave, ed. (1824–1897). The Golden Treasury. 1875.

William Shakespeare

XXVIII. “That time of year thou may’st in me behold”

THAT time of year thou may’st in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang:

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by-and-by black night doth take away,

Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest:

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie

As the death-bed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by:

—This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.