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Shakespeare's
Sonnet CXVI
What thing is love |
WHAT THING IS LOVE
What thing is love? for sure love is a thing.
It is a prick, it is a sting,
It is a pretty, pretty thing;
It is a fire, it is a coal,
Whose flame creeps in at every hole;
And as my wit doth best devise,
Love's dwelling is in ladies' eyes,
From whence do glance love's piercing darts,
That make such holes into our hearts;
And all the world herein accord,
Love is a great and mighty lord;
And when he list to mount so high,
With Venus he in heaven doth lie,
And evermore hath been a god,
Since Mars and she played even and odd.
|
To push past the mere
prettiness of love is not
necessarily to deny
that love is,
as George Peele says
(with a dash of irony) in
this 1580s,
"a pretty, pretty thing": |
