Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 145

by William Shakespeare

For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 145 (Shakespeare).

Layout 2

145

Those lips that Love's own hand did make,
Breath'd forth the sound that said 'I hate,'
To me that languish'd for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state, 4
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was us'd in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet; 8
'I hate,' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away. 12
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And sav'd my life, saying—'Not you.'

 

1–14 Cf. n.