Last
sonnet before slowing down again:
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CXXXVIII
When my love swears that she is made of
truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor'd youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me
young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth
suppressed:
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O! love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love, loves not to have years
told:
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.
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The though in the second line and the although at the beginning of the second
line of the second quatrain are turns.
The first two quatrains comprise a puzzle, which is spelt out in lines 9–10. The puzzle’s answer is introduced by the
common volta marker O! at the
beginning of the following line, although I’d say the main volta is a two-part
one, and that its two parts are the therefore
in the Shakespearean position and the and
at the beginning of the final line. He’s
still into the wordplay (with the lie in
the penultimate line, for instance).
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