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| SUCH wayward ways hath Love, that most part in discord | |
| Our wills do stand, whereby our hearts but seldom do accord. | |
| Deceit is his delight, and to beguile and mock | |
| The simple hearts, which he doth strike with froward, diverse stroke. | |
| He causeth the one to rage with golden burning dart; | 5 |
| And doth allay with leaden cold again the other’s heart. | |
| Hot gleams of burning fire, and easy sparks of flame, | |
| In balance of unequal weight he pondereth by aim. | |
| From easy ford, where I might wade and pass full well, | |
| He me withdraws, and doth me drive into a deep dark hell; | 10 |
| And me withholds where I am call’d and offer’d place, | |
| And wills me that my mortal foe I do beseech of grace; | |
| He lets me to pursue a conquest well near won, | |
| To follow where my pains were lost, ere that my suit begun. | |
| So by these means I know how soon a heart may turn | 15 |
| From war to peace, from truce to strife, and so again return. | |
| I know how to content myself in others lust; | |
| Of little stuff unto myself to weave a web of trust; | |
| And how to hide my harms with soft dissembling chere, | |
| When in my face the painted thoughts would outwardly appear. | 20 |
| I know how that the blood forsakes the face for dread; | |
| And how by shame it stains again the cheeks with flaming red. | |
| I know under the green, the serpent how he lurks; | |
| The hammer of the restless forge I wot eke how it works. | |
| I know, and can by rote the tale that I would tell; | 25 |
| But oft the words come forth awry of him that loveth well. | |
| I know in heat and cold the lover how he shakes; | |
| In singing how he doth complain; in sleeping how he wakes. | |
| To languish without ach, sickless for to consume, | |
| A thousand things for to devise, resolving all in fume. | 30 |
| And though he list to see his lady’s grace full sore; | |
| Such pleasures as delights his eye, do not his health restore. | |
| I know to seek the track of my desired foe, | |
| And fear to find that I do seek. But chiefly this I know, | |
| That lovers must transform into the thing beloved, | 35 |
| And live, (alas! who could believe?) with sprite from life removed. | |
| I know in hearty sighs, and laughters of the spleen, | |
| At once to change my state, my will, and eke my colour clean. | |
| I know how to deceive myself with others help; | |
| And how the lion chastised is, by beating of the whelp. | 40 |
| In standing near the fire, I know how that I freeze; | |
| Far off I burn; in both I waste, and so my life I lese. | |
| I know how love doth rage upon a yielding mind; | |
| How small a net may take, and meash a heart of gentle kind: | |
| Or else with seldom sweet to season heaps of gall; | 45 |
| Revived with a glimpse of grace, old sorrows to let fall. | |
| The hidden trains I know, and secret snare of love; | |
| How soon a look will print a thought, that never may remove. | |
| The slipper state I know, the sudden turns from wealth; | |
| The doubtful hope, the certain woe, and sure despair of health. | 50 |
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