Poem by William Shakespeare

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:
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;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are more;
Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near. 

1. The Church at Stratford
2. Anne Hathaway
3. Hark! Hark! The Lark
4. Dirge of the Three Queens
5. The Blossom

Print

3913 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version