Sonnets 44 and 45

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought

Injurious distance should not stop my way

For then despite of space I would be brought

From limits far remote where thou dost stay

No matter then although my foot did stand

Upon the farthest earth removed from thee

For nimble thought can jump both sea and land

As soon as think the place where he would be

But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought

To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone

But that so much of earth and water wrought

I must attend time's leisure with my moan

Receiving nought by elements so slow

But heavy tears, badges of either's woe

The other two, slight air and purging fire

Are both with thee, wherever I abide;

The first my thought, the other my desire

These present-absent with swift motion slide

For when these quicker elements are gone

In tender embassy of love to thee

My life, being made of four, with two alone

Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy

Until life's composition be recurred

By those swift messengers return'd from thee

Who even but now come back again, assured

Of thy fair health, recounting it to me

This told, I joy; but then no longer glad

I send them back again and straight grow sad