10. ABSENCE.

Being your slave what should I do but tend

Upon the hours and times of your desire?

I have no precious time at all to spend,

Nor services to do, till you require:

Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour

Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,

Nor think the bitterness of absence sour

When you have bid your servant once adieu:

Nor dare I question with my jealous thought

Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,

But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought

Save where you are, how happy you make those;--

So true a fool is love, that in your will,

Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

The Golden Treasury Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language · 第 29 / 568 题