| Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–42). The Poetical Works. 1880. | | | | Songs and Sonnets | | To his Lady, cruel over her yielding Lover |
| | | SUCH is the course that nature’s kind hath wrought, | |
| That snakes have time to cast away their stings: | |
| Against chain’d prisoners what need defence be sought? | |
| The fierce lion will hurt no yielden things: | |
| Why should such spite be nursed then by thought? | 5 |
| Sith all these powers are prest under thy wings; | |
| And eke thou seest, and reason thee hath taught, | |
| What mischief malice many ways it brings: | |
| Consider eke, that spite availeth nought. | |
| Therefore this song thy fault to thee it sings: | 10 |
| Displease thee not, for saying thus my thought, | |
| Nor hate thou him from whom no hate forth springs: | |
| For furies that in hell be execrable, | |
| For that they hate, are made most miserable. | | | | |
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