| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | How Can the Heart Forget Her? | | By Francis Davison (1575?–1619?) |
| | | AT 1 her fair hands how have I grace entreated | |
| With prayers oft repeated! | |
| Yet still my love is thwarted: | |
| Heart, let her go, for she’ll not be converted— | |
| Say, shall she go? | 5 |
| O no, no, no, no, no! | |
| She is most fair, though she be marble-hearted. | |
| |
| How often have my sighs declared my anguish, | |
| Wherein I daily languish! | |
| Yet still she doth procure it: | 10 |
| Heart, let her go, for I can not endure it— | |
| Say, shall she go? | |
| O no, no, no, no, no! | |
| She gave the wound, and she alone must cure it. | |
| |
| But shall I still a true affection owe her, | 15 |
| Which prayers, sighs, tears do show her, | |
| And shall she still disdain me? | |
| Heart, let her go, if they no grace can gain me— | |
| Say, shall she go? | |
| O no, no, no, no, no! | 20 |
| She made me hers, and hers she will retain me. | |
| |
| But if the love that hath and still doth burn me | |
| No love at length return me, | |
| Out of my thoughts I’ll set her: | |
| Heart, let her go, O heart I pray thee, let her! | 25 |
| Say, shall she go? | |
| O no, no, no, no, no! | |
| Fix’d in the heart, how can the heart forget her. | |
| | | Note 1. First printed in Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody, 1602, and set to music in Robert Jones’ Ultimum Vale, 1608. [back] | | |
|
|
|
