Sonnet 44

  1. If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
  2. Injurious distance should not stop my way;
  3. For then despite of space I would be brought,
  4. From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
  5. No matter then although my foot did stand
  6. Upon the farthest earth remov’d from thee;
  7. For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,
  8. As soon as think the place where he would be.
  9. But, ah! thought kills me that I am not thought,
  10. To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
  11. But that so much of earth and water wrought,
  12. I must attend time’s leisure with my moan;
  13. Receiving nought by elements so slow
  14. But heavy tears, badges of either’s woe.

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