Sonnet 44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way,
For then dispight of space I would be brought,
From limits farre remote, where thou doost stay,
No matter then although my foote did stand
Upon the farthest earth remov'd from thee,
For nimble thought can jumpe both sea and land,
As soone as thnke the place where he would be.
But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought
To leape large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend, times leasure with my mone.
Receiving naughts by elements so sloe,
But heavie teares, badges of eithers woe.
Commentary
Address to his absent friend
In the octet, the poet puts forward the proposition that if he were made of thoughts, then he would be able to be instantly with his young friend.
In the sestet, the poet recognises that he is not thought, but made of earth and water, and that therefore he must stay where he is, and complain.
The 'elements so slow' are earth and water. Being so constituted, the poet receives nothing (naughts) but misery (heavie teares), the signs (badges) of the woe of both him (the poet) and his friend.