| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet LXXVII. How can I live in mind’s or body’s health | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | HOW can I live in mind’s or body’s health, | |
| When all four Elements, my griefs conspire? | |
| Of all heart’s joys depriving me, by stealth, | |
| All yielding poisons to my long Desire. | |
| The Fire, with heat’s extremes mine heart enraging. | 5 |
| Water, in tears, from Despair’s fountain flowing. | |
| My soul in sighs, Air to Love’s soul engaging. | |
| My Fancy’s coals, Earth’s melancholy blowing. | |
| Thus these, by Nature, made for my relief; | |
| Through that bold charge of thine imperious eye! | 10 |
| Turn all their graces into bitter grief. | |
| As I were dead, should any of them die! | |
| And they, my body’s substance, all be sick; | |
| It follows, then, I cannot long be quick! | | | | |
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