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Home  »  The Oxford Shakespeare  »  Sonnet XLIX

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.

“Against that time, if ever that time come”

Sonnet XLIX

AGAINST that time, if ever that time come
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call’d to that audit by advis’d respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,          5
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity;
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,   10
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
  To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
  Since why to love I can allege no cause.