How oft when thou, my music, music play’st,
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway’st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap,
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap,
At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand! 
To be so tickled, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more bless’d than living lips. 
  Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
  Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

CXXIX

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action:  and till action, lust
Is perjur’d, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad: 
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme;
A bliss in proof,—­ and prov’d, a very woe;
Before, a joy propos’d; behind a dream. 
  All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
  To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

CXXX

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red: 
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound: 
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—­
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: 
  And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
  As any she belied with false compare.

CXXXI

Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel;
For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart
Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. 
Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold,
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan;
To say they err I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone. 
And to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face,
One on another’s neck, do witness bear
Thy black is fairest in my judgment’s place. 
  In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,
  And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.

CXXXII