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 everywhere! <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 Lord's 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/sonnets-xii/
