| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet XXV. Then count it not disgrace! if any view me | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | THEN count it not disgrace! if any view me, | |
| Sometime to shower down rivers of salt tears, | |
| From tempest of my sigh’s despairful fears. | |
| Then scorn me not, alas, sweet friends! but rue me! | |
| Ah, pity! pity me! For if you knew me! | 5 |
| How, with her looks, mine heart amends and wears; | |
| Now calm, now ragious, as my Passion bears: | |
| You would lament with me! and She which slew me, | |
| She which (Ay me!) She which did deadly wound me, | |
| And with her beauty’s balm, though dead, keeps lively | 10 |
| My lifeless body; and, by charms, hath bound me, | |
| For thankless meed, to serve her: if she vively | |
| Could see my sorrow’s maze, which none can tread; | |
| She would be soft and light, though flint and lead! | | | | |
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