| SONNET 142 |
PARAPHRASE |
| Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate, |
Love is my sin, and your inmost virtue is hate: |
| Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving: |
You hate of my love for you because of your own adultery: |
| O, but with mine compare thou thine own state, |
But with my state compare your own condition, |
| And thou shalt find it merits not reproving; |
And you will find it does not deserve blame; |
| Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine, |
Or if it does, at least not from your own lips, |
| That have profaned their scarlet ornaments |
That have disgraced their attractive red hue, |
| And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine, |
And sealed flase bonds with a kiss as often as I have, |
| Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents. |
And stolen married men from their domestic beds. |
| Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lovest those |
Let me then love you as much as you love those |
| Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee: |
Whom your eyes woo, while mine long for a response from you; |
| Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows |
Put pity in your heart so that when it grows, |
| Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. |
You will then deserve to be pitied. |
| If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, |
If you seek the love you withhold from me, |
| By self-example mayst thou be denied! |
You may be refused as you have refused me. |
Introduction to
Shakespeare's Sonnets