Your love and pity doth th' impression fill Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow; For what care I who calls me well or ill, So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow? 5 You are my all the world, and I must strive To know my shames and praises from your tongue; None else to me, nor I to none alive, That my steeled sense or changes right or wrong. In so profound abysm I throw all care 10 Of others' voices, that my adder’s sense To critic and to flatt’rer stoppèd are. Mark how with my neglect I do dispense: You are so strongly in my purpose bred That all the world besides methinks y'are dead.
Your love and sympathy fills in the mark
That a public disgrace has stamped on my forehead;
But what do I care who calls me good or bad,
Since you cover my badness, and accept my goodness?
You are all the world to me, and I must strive
To know my disgrace and praise from your speech;
No one else exists for me, or I to anyone alive,
And you change right and wrong in my stubborn mind.
Into a deep abyss I through all worries
About other peoples' opinions, so that my deaf mind
Is closed to critics and flatterers.
See how I neglect everything:
You are so much a part of my plan
That the whole world besides me thinks you are dead.
Suzy Kim is a graduate student studying Victorian literature at Brown University. She studied English and Psychology at University of Pennsylvania, and some of her creative work can be found in the upcoming volume of The Graphic Canon: Tales of Crime and Mystery Vol. 1. She is from Seoul, and currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.