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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Sonnet XXXIII. Pale are my looks, forsaken of my life

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Licia

Sonnet XXXIII. Pale are my looks, forsaken of my life

Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)

PALE are my looks, forsaken of my life:

Cinders, my bones; consumèd with thy flame.

Floods are my tears, to end this burning strife;

And yet I sigh, for to increase the same.

I mourn alone, because alone I burn:

Who doubts of this, then let him learn to love!

Her looks, cold ice into a flame can turn;

As I distressèd in myself do prove.

Respect, fair LICIA, what my torments are!

Count but the tithe both of my sighs and tears!

See how my love doth still increase my care!

And care’s increase, my life to nothing wears.

Send but a sigh, my flame for to increase:

Or lend a tear, and cause it so to cease.