Sonnet 35
Shadows and Forgiveness
- 1 No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done:
- 2 Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud:
- 3 Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
- 4 And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
- 5 All men make faults, and even I in this,
- 6 Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
- 7 Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
- 8 Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
- 9 For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,—
- 10 Thy adverse party is thy advocate,—
- 11 And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
- 12 Such civil war is in my love and hate,
- 13 That I an accessary needs must be,
- 14 To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.