| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Canzonet: ‘I pray thee, leave, love me no more’ | | By Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | To His Coy Love
I PRAY thee, leave, love me no more, | |
| Call home the heart you gave me! | |
| I but in vain that saint adore | |
| That can, but will not save me. | |
| These poor half-kisses kill me quite— | 5 |
| Was ever man thus servèd? | |
| Amidst an ocean of delight | |
| For pleasure to be starvèd. | |
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| Show me no more those snowy breasts, | |
| With azure riverets branchèd, | 10 |
| Where, whilst mine eye with plenty feasts, | |
| Yet is my thirst not stanchèd; | |
| O, Tantalus! thy pains ne’er tell | |
| By me thou art prevented; | |
| ’Tis nothing to be plagued in Hell, | 15 |
| But thus in Heaven tormented! | |
| |
| Clip me no more in those dear arms, | |
| Nor thy life’s comfort call me, | |
| O these are but too powerful charms, | |
| And do but more enthral me! | 20 |
| But see how patient I am grown | |
| In all this coil about thee; | |
| Come, nice thing, let my heart alone, | |
| I cannot live without thee! | | | | |
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