Sonnet XL: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all

By William Shakespeare 1564–1616 William Shakespeare

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all:

What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?

No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call—

All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.

Then if for my love thou my love receivest,

I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;

But yet be blamed if thou this self deceivest

By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.

I do forgive thy robb’ry, gentle thief,

Although thou steal thee all my poverty;

And yet love knows it is a greater grief

To bear love’s wrong than hate’s known injury.

Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,

Kill me with spites, yet we must not be foes.

Biography

While William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays, he became famous first as a poet. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly encoded in them, the nondramatic writings have traditionally been pushed to the margins of the Shakespeare industry. Yet the study of his nondramatic poetry can illuminate Shakespeare's . . .

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Poems by William Shakespeare

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Poem Categorization

SUBJECT Love, Classic Love, Infatuation & Crushes

POET’S REGION England

SCHOOL / PERIOD Renaissance

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Sonnet XL: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all

Sonnet XL: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all

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Poems by William Shakespeare

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