Shakespeare's Sonnets: Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate

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Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving.O but with mine, compare thou thine own state,And thou shalt find it merits not reproving,Or if it do, not from those lips of thineThat have profan'd their scarlet ornamentsAnd seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,Robb'd other's beds' revenues of their rents.Be 't lawful I love thee as thou lov'st thoseWhom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee,Root pity in thy heart that, when it grows,Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example may'st thou be denied.

© William Shakespeare