| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet LXXIV. Cease, over-tired Muses! to complain! | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | CEASE, over-tired Muses! to complain! | |
| In vain, thou pours out words! in vain, thy tears! | |
| In vain, thou writes thy verses! all in vain! | |
| For to the rocks and wall, which never hears, | |
| Thou speakes! and sendes complaints, which find no grace! | 5 |
| But why compare I thee to rocks, and walls? | |
| Yes, thou descendes from stones and rocks, by race! | |
| But rocks will answer to the latter calls. | |
| Yea, rocks will speak each sentence’s last word, | |
| And in each syllable of that word agree; | 10 |
| But thou, nor last, nor first, wilt me afford! | |
| Hath Pride, or Nature, bred this fault in thee? | |
| Nature and Pride have wrought in thee these evils: | |
| For women are, by Nature, proud as devils! | | | | |
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