| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Elegy XVI. Ah, were my tears, as many writers’ be | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | AH, were my tears, as many writers’ be, | |
| Mere drops of ink proceeding from my pen! | |
| Then in these sable weeds, you should not see | |
| Me severed from society of men! | |
| Ah me! all colours do mine eyes displease, | 5 |
| Save those two colours of pure white, and red! | |
| And yet I dare not flourish it in these, | |
| Because I cannot! For my colour’s dead. | |
| Those colours flourish round about each where, | |
| But chiefly with my Mistress, in their kind: | 10 |
| And fain I would her lovely colours wear; | |
| So that it might be pleasing to her mind! | |
| But nought will please her over-cruel eye, | |
| But black and pale, on body, and in face; | |
| Then She triumphs in beauty’s tyranny, | 15 |
| When she sees Beauty, Beauty can disgrace! | |
| When her sweet smiling eyes dry VESTA’s throne! | |
| Can blubbered blear-eyes, drown in seas of tears! | |
| And laughs to hear poor lovers, how they moan! | |
| Joys in the paper, which her praises bears! | 20 |
| And, for his sake than sent, that schedule tears! | |
| What but pale Envy doth her heart assail? | |
| When She would be still fair, and laugh alone; | |
| And, for her sake, all others mourn and pale! | | | | |
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