Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Shakespeare. 15641616163. Sonnets xix
TH‘ expense of Spirit in a waste of shame | |
Is lust in action; and till action, lust | |
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, | |
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; | |
Enjoy’d no sooner but despisèd straight; | 5 |
Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had, | |
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait | |
On purpose laid to make the taker mad: | |
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; | |
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; | 10 |
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; | |
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. | |
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well | |
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. |