Sonnet 12 - Indeed this very love which is my boast

1Indeed this very love which is my boast,

2And which, when rising up from breast to brow,

3Doth crown me with a ruby large enow

4To draw men's eyes and prove the inner cost,—

5This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,

6I should not love withal, unless that thou

7Hadst set me an example, shown me how,

8When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,

9And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak

10Of love even, as a good thing of my own:

11Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,

12And placed it by thee on a golden throne,—

13And that I love (O soul, we must be meek!)

14Is by thee only, whom I love alone.