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 The World's Way

(One of the series of sonnets in which the English dramatist, 1564-1616, voiced his inmost soul)

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry— As, to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And gilded honor shamefully misplaced, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, And strength by limping sway disablèd,

And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill, And simple truth miscall'd simplicity, And captive Good attending captain Ill:—

Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my Love alone.

Written in London, September, 1802

(One of the great sonnets of England's poet of nature; 1770-1850. Poet laureate in 1843)

O friend! I know not which way I must look For comfort, being, as I am, opprest To think that now our life is only drest