| |
| WHO hath ever felt the change of love, | |
| And known those pangs that the loosers prove, | |
| May paint my face, without seeing me; | |
| And write the state how my fancies be: | |
| The loathsome buds grown on Sorrow’s Tree. | 5 |
| |
| But who, by hearsay speaks, and hath not fully felt | |
| What kind of fires they be in which those spirits melt, | |
| Shall guess, and fail, what doth displease: | |
| Feeling my pulse; miss my disease. | |
| |
| O no! O no! trial only shows | 10 |
| The bitter juice of forsaken woes; | |
| Where former bliss, present evils do stain: | |
| Nay, former bliss adds to present pain; | |
| While remembrance doth both states contain. | |
| |
| Come learners then to me! the model of mishap! | 15 |
| Engulfèd in despair! slid down from fortune’s lap! | |
| And as you like my double lot, | |
| Tread in my steps, or follow not?? | |
| |
| For me, alas, I am full resolved | |
| These bands, alas, shall not be dissolved; | 20 |
| Nor break my word, though reward come late; | |
| Nor fail my faith in my failing fate; | |
| Nor change in change, though change change my state. | |
| |
| But always one myself, with eagle-eyed truth to fly | |
| Up to the sun; although the sun my wings do fry: | 25 |
| For if those flames burn my desire, | |
| Yet shall I die in Phœnix’s fire. | |
| |
