| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Falsehood | | By William Cartwright (1611–1643) |
| | | STILL do the stars impart their light | |
| To those that travel in the night; | |
| Still time runs on, nor doth the hand | |
| Or shadow on the dial stand; | |
| The streams still glide and constant are: | 5 |
| Only thy mind | |
| Untrue I find, | |
| Which carelessly | |
| Neglects to be | |
| Like stream or shadow, hand or star. | 10 |
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| Fool that I am! I do recall | |
| My words, and swear thou’rt like them all: | |
| Thou seem’st like stars to nourish fire, | |
| But O how cold is thy desire! | |
| And like the hand upon the brass | 15 |
| Thou point’st at me | |
| In mockery; | |
| If I come nigh | |
| Shade-like thou’lt fly, | |
| And as the stream with murmur pass. | 20 | | | |
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