Sonnet 75

Devouring Time

  1. 1 So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
  2. 2 Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
  3. 3 And for the peace of you I hold such strife
  4. 4 As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
  5. 5 Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
  6. 6 Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
  7. 7 Now counting best to be with you alone,
  8. 8 Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure:
  9. 9 Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
  10. 10 And by and by clean starved for a look;
  11. 11 Possessing or pursuing no delight,
  12. 12 Save what is had, or must from you be took.
  13. 13 Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
  14. 14 Or gluttoning on all, or all away.