1 How like a winter hath my absence been
2 From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
3 What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
4 What old December's bareness every where!
5 And yet this time removed was summer's time,
6 The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
7 Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
8 Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
9 Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
10 But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
11 For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
12 And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
13 Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
14 That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
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Evocative video by LaFleur1218.
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