| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | O Cruel Love | | By John Lyly (1555?–1606) |
| | | O CRUEL Love, on thee I lay | |
| My curse, which shall strike blind the day; | |
| Never may sleep with velvet hand | |
| Charm thine eyes with sacred wand; | |
| Thy jailors shall be hopes and fears, | 5 |
| Thy prison-mates groans, sighs, and tears, | |
| Thy play to wear out weary times, | |
| Fantastic passions, vows, and rhymes; | |
| Thy bread be frowns, thy drink be gall, | |
| Such as when you Phao call; | 10 |
| The bed thou liest on be despair, | |
| Thy sleep fond dreams, thy dreams long care. | |
| Hope, like thy fool at thy bed’s head, | |
| Mock thee till madness strike thee dead, | |
| As, Phao, thou dost me with thy proud eyes; | 15 |
| In thee poor Sappho lives, for thee she dies. | | | | |
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