Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 35
35
No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. 4
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorising thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are; 8
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,—
Thy adverse party is thy advocate,—
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate, 12
That I an accessary needs must be
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
2 fountains: springs
3 stain: dim
6 Authorising: sanctioning
with compare: by these comparisons
7 amiss: fault
8 Excusing thy sins; cf. n.
9 sense; cf. n.
13 accessary: accessory, helper
14 sourly: cruelly