Love's Memory. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). II. Parting and Absence. Bliss Carman, et al., eds. 1904. The World's Best Poetry. III. Sorrow and Consolation

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904.

II. Parting and Absence

Love’s Memory

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

From “All ’s Well That Ends Well,” Act I. Sc. 1.

I AM undone: there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light	5
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love. ’T was pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw	10
His archèd brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart’s table,—heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favor:
But now he ’s gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relics.	15