Sonnet 98

Sonnet 98 is a sonnet written by William Shakespeare. The first line of the sonnet gave the Mary Westmacott novel Absent in the Spring its name.

Sonnet 98
From you have I been absent in the spring,

When proud pied April dress’d in all his trim

Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,

That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him.

Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell

Of different flowers in odour and in hue

Could make me any summer’s story tell,

Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;

Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,

Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;

They were but sweet, but figures of delight,

Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.

Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,

As with your shadow I with these did play.