"How Like A Winter Hath My Absence Been"

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year;

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen;

What old December's bareness everywhere.

And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,

the teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,

Like widowed wombs after their lords' decease;

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

But hope of orphans and unfathered fruit;

for summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And, thou away, the very birds mute;

Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

Sonnet XCVII

William Shakespeare

"Not Mine Own Fears, Nor The Prophetic Soul"

Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul

Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,

Can yet the lease of my true love control,

Supposed as forfeit to a confin'd doom.

The mortal moon hath her eclipse endur'd,

And the sad augurs mock their own presage;

Incertainties now crown themselves assur'd,

And peace proclaims olives of endless age.

Now with the drops of the most balmy time,

My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,

Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor time,

while he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes;

And thou in this shalt find thy monument,

When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent.

Sonnet CVII

William Shakespeare

Marble Halls

I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls
With vassals and serfs at my side,
And of all who assembled within those walls
That I was the hope and the pride.
I had riches all too great to count
And a high ancestral name.

But I also dreamt which pleased me most
That you loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same.

I dreamt that suitors sought my hand,
That knights upon bended knee
And with vows no maiden's heart could withstand,
They pledged their faith to me.
And I dreamt that one of that noble host
Came forth my hand to claim.

But I also dreamt which pleased me most
That you loved me still the same
That you loved me
You loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same.