11. How like a winter hath my absence been. W. Shakespeare. The Golden Treasury

Francis T. Palgrave, ed. (1824–1897). The Golden Treasury. 1875.

W. Shakespeare

XI. "How like a winter hath my absence been"

HOW like a winter hath my absence been
From Thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,
What old December's bareness everywhere!

And yet this time removed was summer's time:	5
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;	10
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.