Sonnet · Nature
Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
1How like a winter hath my absence been
2From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
3What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
4What old December's bareness everywhere!
5And yet this time removed was summer's time;
6The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
7Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
8Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
9Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
10But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;
11For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
12And, 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.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-97
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Nature, Winter, Summer
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Shakespeare1564–1616
- Source record
- PoetryDBSonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 8c7a3996b23dde69…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.