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Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 90

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Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 90
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Sonnet 90

90

Synopsis:

Continuing from the final line of s. 89, this sonnet begs the beloved to deliver quickly any terrible blow that awaits the poet. Then the other blows being dealt by the world will seem as nothing.

 
Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
4And do not drop in for an afterloss.
Ah, do not, when my heart hath ’scaped this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquered woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
8To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come; so shall I taste
12At first the very worst of fortune’s might;
 And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
 Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.