Sonnet 129
The Dark Lady: Desire
- 1 The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
- 2 Is lust in action: and till action, lust
- 3 Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
- 4 Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
- 5 Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight;
- 6 Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
- 7 Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait,
- 8 On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
- 9 Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
- 10 Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme;
- 11 A bliss in proof,— and prov'd, a very woe;
- 12 Before, a joy propos'd; behind a dream.
- 13 All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
- 14 To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.