Sonnet 139
The Dark Lady: Desire
- 1 O! call not me to justify the wrong
- 2 That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;
- 3 Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue:
- 4 Use power with power, and slay me not by art,
- 5 Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere; but in my sight,
- 6 Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside:
- 7 What need'st thou wound with cunning, when thy might
- 8 Is more than my o'erpress'd defence can bide?
- 9 Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows
- 10 Her pretty looks have been mine enemies;
- 11 And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
- 12 That they elsewhere might dart their injuries:
- 13 Yet do not so; but since I am near slain,
- 14 Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.