The Sonnets CXX - That you were once unkind befriends me now
By William Shakespeare
That you were once unkind befriends me now,
And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,
Needs must I under my transgression bow,
Unless my nerves were brass or hammerd steel.
For if you were by my unkindness shaken,
As I by yours, youve passd a hell of time;
And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken
To weigh how once I sufferd in your crime.
O! that our night of woe might have rememberd
My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,
And soon to you, as you to me, then tenderd
The humble salve, which wounded bosoms fits!
But that your trespass now becomes a fee;
Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.