| SONNET 45 |
PARAPHRASE |
| The other two, slight air and purging fire, |
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| Are both with thee, wherever I abide; |
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| The first my thought, the other my desire, |
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| These present-absent with swift motion slide. |
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| For when these quicker elements are gone |
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| In tender embassy of love to thee, |
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| My life, being made of four, with two alone |
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| Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy; |
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| Until life's composition be recured |
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| By those swift messengers return'd from thee, |
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| Who even but now come back again, assured |
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| Of thy fair health, recounting it to me: |
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| This told, I joy; but then no longer glad, |
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| I send them back again and straight grow sad. |
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