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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Sonnet 118: Like as, to make our appetite more keen

William Shakespeare·1564–1616
Lines:14Movement:English Renaissance
Like as, to make our appetite more keen,With eager compounds we our palate urge;As, to prevent our maladies unseen,We sicken to shun sickness when we purge;Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetnessTo be diseas'd, ere that there was true needing.Thus policy in love, to anticipateThe ills that were not, grew to faults assur'd,And brought to medicine a healthful stateWhich, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur'd; But thence I learn and find the lesson true, Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.