Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator Summary of Sonnet 129 in the Table of Contents Notes for Sonnet 129

Shakespeare's Sonnet 129


  1    Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
  2    Is lust in action; and till action, lust
  3    Is perjur'd, murd'rous, 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 swallowed 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 prov'd, 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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