|
|
| How like a winter hath my absence been | 1 |
|
|
| 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 removed was summer's time; | 5 |
|
|
| The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, |
|
|
| Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, |
|
|
| Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease: |
|
|
| Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me |
|
|
| But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit; | 10 |
|
|
| For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, |
|
|
| And, thou away, the very birds are mute: |
|
|
 Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer, |
|
|
| That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near. |
|
|
