Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 45
For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 45 (Shakespeare).
45
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. 4
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; 8
Until life's composition be recur'd
By those sweet messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assur'd
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me: 12
This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again, and straight grow sad.
9 life's composition: union of the four elements
recur'd: restored