Sonnet 129

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

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