Sonnet XIV. If a true heart and faith unfeigned

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

IF a true heart and faith unfeigned;

If a sweet languish with a chaste desire;

If hunger-starven thoughts so long retained,

Fed but with smoke, and cherished but with fire;

And if a brow with CARE’s characters painted;

Bewray my love, with broken words half spoken,

To her which sits in my thoughts’ temple, sainted;

And lay to view my vulture-gnawen heart open:

If I have wept the day and sighed the night,

While thrice the sun approached his northern bound;

If such a faith hath ever wrought aright,

And well deserved, and yet no favour found.

Let this suffice; the whole world it may see,

The fault is hers, though mine the most hurt be.