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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Sonnet 140: Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press

William Shakespeare·1564–1616
Lines:14Movement:English Renaissance
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not pressMy tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;Lest sorrow lend me words, and words expressThe manner of my pity-wanting pain.If I might teach thee wit, better it were,Though not to love, yet, love to tell me so;--As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,No news but health from their physicians know;--For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,And in my madness might speak ill of thee;Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be. That I may not be so, nor thou belied, Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.