The Poetry Corner

The Sonnets XCVII - How like a winter hath my absence been

By William Shakespeare

How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old Decembers bareness everywhere! And yet this time removed was summers time; The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, Like widowd wombs after their lords decease: Yet this abundant issue seemd to me But hope of orphans, and unfatherd fruit; For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, And, thou away, the very birds are mute: Or, if they sing, tis with so dull a cheer, That leaves look pale, dreading the winters near.