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Sonnet 144: Two Loves I Have Of Comfort And Despair, By: William Shakespeare

October 12, 2026 by Editors

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Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell:
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

Read all of William Shakespeare's poems · About William Shakespeare

More by William Shakespeare

  • Sonnet 12: When I Do Count The Clock That Tells The Time
  • Sonnet 2: When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow
  • Sonnet 3: Look In Thy Glass And Tell The Face Thou Viewest
  • Sonnet 20: A Woman's Face With Nature's Own Hand Painted
  • Sonnet 23: As An Unperfect Actor On The Stage

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