How like a winter hath my absence been <br /> From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! <br /> What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! <br /> What old December's bareness every where! <br /> And yet this time removed was summer's time, <br /> The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, <br /> Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, <br /> Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease: <br /> Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me <br /> But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit; <br /> For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, <br /> And, thou away, the very birds are mute; <br /> Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer <br /> That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.<br /><br />William Shakespeare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-xcvii/
