dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Oxford Shakespeare  »  Sonnet LVII

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.

“Being your slave, what should I do but tend”

Sonnet LVII

BEING your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour,          5
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,   10
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought,
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
  So true a fool is love that in your will,
  Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.