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Sonnet XVI.

Topics: classic

We never joy enjoy to that full point     Regret doth wish joy had enjoyd been,     Nor have the strength regret to disappoint     Recalling not past joy's thought, but its mien.     Yet joy was joy when it enjoyd was     And after-enjoyed when as joy recalled,     It must have been joy ere its joy did pass     And, recalled, joy still, since its being-past galled.     Alas! All this is useless, for joy's in     Enjoying, not in thinking of enjoying.     Its mere thought-mirroring gainst itself doth sin,     By mere reflecting solid life destroying,         Yet the more thought we take to thought to prove         It must not think, doth further from joy move.

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"We never joy enjoy to that full point..."

"Sonnet XVI." is a quintessential example of Fernando Antnio Nogueira Pessoa's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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