SONNET 144	PARAPHRASE
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,	Two loves I have, one comforting, the other despairing;
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:	Which like two spirits do urge me on:
The better angel is a man right fair,	The better angel is a beautiful man,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.	The worser spirit [angel] is a woman of dark complexion.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil	With what would soon send me to hell, my female lover
Tempteth my better angel from my side,	Tempts my better lover away from me,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,	And wants to corrupt him and turn him into a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.	Seducing him and his purity with her dark pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend	And whether my angel be turned into a fiend,
Suspect I may, but not directly tell;	I cannot say for sure, although I suspect as much;
But being both from me, both to each friend,	But both being away from me, and each friendly toward the other,
I guess one angel in another's hell:	I guess one angel is in the other's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,	But this I'll never know, and I'll live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.	Until my bad angel drives away my good angel.