The Sonnets

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action: and till action, lust

Is perjurʼd, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoyʼd no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallowʼd bait,

On purpose laid to make the taker mad:

Mad in pursuit and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme;

A bliss in proof,—and provʼd, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposʼd; behind a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.