Absence

(William Shakespear)

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 5

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, 10

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 anything, he thinks no ill.

All