#142

Difficult first week  L  I hope the semester becomes easier as it progresses!  Today’s sonnet:

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CXLII

  Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,

  Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:

  O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,

  And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;

  Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,

  That have profan'd their scarlet ornaments

  And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,

  Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents.

  Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those

  Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:

  Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows,

  Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.

    If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,

    By self-example mayst thou be denied!

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The O! but at the beginning of line 3 and the not in line 5.  The main volta is the if in the Shakespearean position.  More tomorrow.