Shakespeare's Sonnets Navigator Summary of Sonnet 139 in the Table of Contents Notes for Sonnet 139

Shakespeare's Sonnet 139


  1    O, call not me to justify the wrong
  2    That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;
  3    Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue;
  4    Use power with power, and slay me not by art.
  5    Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere, but in my sight,
  6    Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside;
  7    What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might
  8    Is more than my o'er-press'd defense can bide?
  9    Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows
 10    Her pretty looks have been mine enemies,
 11    And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
 12    That they elsewhere might dart their injuries:
 13      Yet do not so, but since I am near slain,
 14      Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.

<<<  Previous Next  >>>