Sonnets 44 and 45 Video (MV)

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
Injurious distance should not stop my way
For then despite of space I would be brought
From limits far remote where thou dost stay
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be
Ah! But thought kills me that I am not thought
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone
But that so much of earth and water wrought
I must attend time's leisure with my moan
Receiving nought by elements so slow
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe

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