Sonnet

The only bird alone that nature frames,When weary of the tedious life she lives,By fire dies, yet finds new life in flames,Her ashes to her shape new essence gives.When only I, the only wretched wight,Weary of life that breathes but sorrow's blast,Pursue the flame of such a beauty bright,That burns my heart, and yet my life still lasts.O sovereign light, that with thy sacred flameConsumes my life, revive me after this!And make me, with the happy bird, the sameThat dies to live, by favour of thy bliss!This deed of thine will show a goddess' power,In so long death to grant one living hour.

The sly enchanter when to work his willAnd secret wrong on some forespoken wight,Frames wax in form to represent arightThe poor unwitting wretch he means to kill,And pricks the image framed by magic's skill,Whereby to vex the party day and night;Like hath she done, whose show bewitched my sightTo beauty's charms, her lover's blood to spill.For first, like wax she framed me by her eyes,Whose rays sharp-pointed set upon my breastMartyr my life and plague me in this wiseWith ling'ring pain to perish in unrest.Nought could, save this, my sweetest fair suffice,To try her art on him that loves her best.

The tablet of my heavy fortunes hereUpon thine altar, Paphian Power, I place.The grievous shipwreck of my travels dearIn bulged bark, all perished in disgrace.That traitor Love was pilot to my woe;My sails were hope, spread with my sighs of grief;The twin lights which my hapless course did showHard by th'inconstant sands of false relief,Were two bright stars which led my view apart.A siren's voice allured me come so nearTo perish on the marble of her heart,A danger which my soul did never fear.Lo, thus he fares that trusts a calm too much;And thus fare I whose credit hath been such!

Weigh but the cause, and give me leave to plain me,For all my hurt, that my heart's queen hath wrought it;She whom I love so dear, the more to pain me,Withholds my right where I have dearly bought it.Dearly I bought that was so slightly rated,Even with the price of blood and body's wasting;She would not yield that ought might be abated,For all she saw my love was pure and lasting,And yet now scorns performance of the passion,And with her presence justice overruleth.She tells me flat her beauty bears no action;And so my plea and process she excludeth.What wrong she doth, the world may well perceive it,To accept my faith at first, and then to leave it.

Oft and in vain my rebel thoughts have venturedTo stop the passage of my vanquished heart;And shut those ways my friendly foe first entered,Hoping thereby to free my better part.And whilst I guard the windows of this fort,Where my heart's thief to vex me made her choice,And thither all my forces do transport,Another passage opens at her voice.Her voice betrays me to her hand and eye,My freedom's tyrant, conquering all by art;But ah! what glory can she get thereby,With three such powers to plague one silly heart!Yet my soul's sovereign, since I must resign,Reign in my thoughts, my love and life are thine!

Like as the spotless ermelin distressedCircumpassed round with filth and lothsome mud,Pines in her grief, imprisoned to her nest,And cannot issue forth to seek her good;So I invironed with a hatefull want,Look to the heavens; the heavens yield forth no grace;I search the earth, the earth I find as scant,I view myself, myself in wofull case.Heaven nor earth will not, myself cannot makeA way through want to free my soul from care;But I must pine, and in my pining lurkLest my sad looks bewray me how I fare.My fortune mantled with a cloud s'obscure,Thus shades my life so long as wants endure.

My cares draw on mine everlasting night,In horror's sable clouds sets my life's sun;My life's sweet sun, my dearest comfort's lightShall rise no more to me whose day is done.I'll go before unto the myrtle shades,T'attend the presence of my world's dear;And there prepare her flowers that never fades,And all things fit against her coming there.If any ask me why so soon I came,I'll hide her sin and say it was my lot.In life and death I'll tender her good name;My life nor death shall never be her blot.Although this world may seem her deed to blame,The Elysian ghosts shall never know the same.