Synopsis:

The poet writes as if his relationship with the beloved has ended—and as if that relationship had been a wonderful dream from which he has now waked.

 
Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know’st thy estimate.
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
4My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting,
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
8And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thy self thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
12Comes home again, on better judgment making.
 Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter,
 In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

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