Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | II. Parting and Absence | | “Farewell! thou art too dear” | | William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Sonnet LXXXVII.
FAREWELL! thou art too dear for my possessing, | |
| And like enough thou know’st thy estimate: | |
| The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; | |
| My bonds in thee are all determinate. | |
| For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? | 5 |
| And for that riches where is my deserving? | |
| The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, | |
| And so my patent back again is swerving. | |
| Thyself thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing, | |
| Or me, to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking; | 10 |
| So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, | |
| Comes home again, on better judgment making. | |
| Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter; | |
| In sleep a king, but, waking, no such matter. | | | | |
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