My Love is lyke to yse, and I to fyre:How comes it then that this her cold so greatIs not dissolv’d through my so hot desyre,But harder growes the more I her intreat?Or how comes it that my exceeding heatIs not delayd* by her hart-frosen cold,But that I burne much more in boyling sweat,And feele […]

See! how the stubborne damzell doth depraveMy simple meaning with disdaynfull scorne,And by the bay which I unto her gaveAccoumpts my self her captive quite forlorne.The bay, quoth she, is of the victours born,Yielded them by the vanquisht as theyr meeds,And they therewith doe poetes heads adorne,To sing the glory of their famous deeds.But sith […]

The laurel-leafe which you this day doe weareGives me great hope of your relenting mynd:For since it is the badge which I doe beare*,Ye, bearing it, doe seeme to me inclind.The powre thereof, which ofte in me I find,Let it likewise your gentle brest inspireWith sweet infusion, and put you in mindOf that proud mayd […]

The love which me so cruelly tormentethSo pleasing is in my extreamest paine,That, all the more my sorrow it augmenteth,The more I love and doe embrace my bane.Ne do I wish (for wishing were but vaine)To be acquit fro my continual smart,But ioy her thrall for ever to remayne,And yield for pledge my poor and […]

Is it her nature, or is it her will,To be so cruell to an humbled foe?If nature, then she may it mend with skill;If will, then she at will may will forgoe.But if her nature and her will be so,That she will plague the man that loves her most,And take delight t’encrease a wretches woe,Then […]

XL. Mark when she smiles with amiable cheare,And tell me whereto can ye lyken it;When on each eyelid sweetly doe appeareAn hundred Graces as in shade to sit.Lykest it seemeth, in my simple wit,Unto the fayre sunshine in somers day,That, when a dreadfull storme away is flit,Thrugh the broad world doth spred his goodly rayAt […]

Sweet smile! the daughter of the Queene of Love,Expressing all thy mothers powrefull art,With which she wonts to temper angry Iove,When all the gods he threats with thundring dart,Sweet is thy vertue, as thy selfe sweet art.For when on me thou shinedst late in sadnesse,A melting pleasance ran through every part,And me revived with hart-robbing […]

Arion, when, through tempests cruel wracke,He forth was thrown into the greedy seas,Through the sweet musick which his harp did makeAllur’d a dolphin him from death to ease.But my rude musick, which was wont to pleaseSome dainty eares, cannot, with any skill,The dreadfull tempest of her wrath appease,Nor move the dolphin from her stubborn will.But […]

What guyle is this, that those her golden tressesShe doth attyre under a net of gold,And with sly skill so cunningly them dresses,That which is gold or haire may scarse be told?Is it that mens frayle eyes, which gaze too bold,She may entangle in that golden snare;And, being caught, may craftily enfoldTheir weaker harts, which […]

Tell me, when shall these wearie woes have end;Or shall their ruthlesse torment never cease,But al my days in pining languor spend,Without hope of asswagement or release?Is there no meanes for me to purchace peace,Or make agreement with her thrilling eyes;But that their cruelty doth still increace,And dayly more augment my miseryes?But when ye have […]

Long languishing in double maladyOf my harts wound and of my bodies griefe,There came to me a leach, that would applyFit medcines for my bodies best reliefe.Vayne man, quoth I, that hast but little priefe*In deep discovery of the mynds disease;Is not the hart of all the body chiefe,And rules the members as it selfe […]

Fayre Cruell! why are ye so fierce and cruell?Is it because your eyes have powre to kill?Then know that mercy is the Mighties iewell,And greater glory think to save then spill.But if it be your pleasure and proud willTo shew the powre of your imperious eyes,Then not on him that never thought you ill,But bend […]

Innocent paper! whom too cruell handDid make the matter to avenge her yre,And ere she could thy cause well understand,Did sacrifize unto the greedy fyre,Well worthy thou to have found better hyreThen so bad end, for hereticks ordayned;Yet heresy nor treason didst conspire,But plead thy maisters cause, unjustly payned:Whom she, all carelesse of his grief, […]

Trust not the treason of those smyling lookes,Untill ye have their guylefull traynes well tryde;For they are lyke but unto golden hookes,That from the foolish fish theyr bayts do hyde:So she with flattring smyles weake harts doth guydeUnto her love, and tempte to theyr decay;Whome, being caught, she kills with cruell pryde,And feeds at pleasure […]

When my abodes prefixed time is spent,My cruell fayre streight bids me wend my way:But then from heaven most hideous stormes are sent,As willing me against her will to stay.Whom then shall I–or heaven, or her–obay?The heavens know best what is the best for me:But as she will, whose will my life doth sway,My lower […]

Leave, Lady! in your glasse of cristall cleneYour goodly selfe for evermore to vew,And in my selfe, (my inward selfe I meane,)Most lively lyke behold your semblant trew.Within my hart, though hardly it can shewThing so divine to vew of earthly eye,The fayre idea of your celestiall hewAnd every part remaines immortally:And were it not […]

When those renoumed noble peres of GreeceThrough stubborn pride among themselves did iar,Forgetfull of the famous golden fleece,Then Orpheus with his harp theyr strife did bar.But this continuall, cruell, civill warreThe which my selfe against my selfe doe make,Whilest my weak powres of passions warreid arre,No skill can stint, nor reason can aslake.But when in […]

Shall I then silent be, or shall I speake?And if I speake, her wrath renew I shall;And if I silent be, my hart will breake,Or choked be with overflowing gall.What tyranny is this, both my hart to thrall,And eke my toung with proud restraint to tie,That neither I may speake nor thinke at all,But like […]

Fayre ye be sure, but cruell and unkind,As is a tygre, that with greedinesseHunts after bloud; when he by chance doth findA feeble beast, doth felly him oppresse.Fayre be ye sure, but proud and pitilesse,As is a storme, that all things doth prostrate;Finding a tree alone all comfortlesse,Beats on it strongly, it to ruinate.Fayre be […]

So oft as I her beauty doe behold,And therewith doe her cruelty compare,I marvaile of what substance was the mouldThe which her made attonce so cruell faire.Not earth; for her high thoughts more heavenly are:Not water; for her love doth burne like fyre:Not ayre; for she is not so light or rare;Not fyre; for she […]