| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The First Decade
Sonnet IV. A friend of mine, pitying my hopeless love | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | A FRIEND of mine, pitying my hopeless love, | |
| Hoping, by killing hope, my love to stay: | |
| “Let not,” quoth he, “thy hope, thy heart betray! | |
| Impossible it is her heart to move.” | |
| But sith resolvèd love cannot remove, | 5 |
| As long as thy divine perfections stay: | |
| Thy godhead then, he sought to take away. | |
| Dear! seek revenge, and him a liar prove! | |
| Gods only do impossibilities. | |
| “Impossible,” saith he, “thy grace to gain.” | 10 |
| Show then the power of thy divinities | |
| By granting me thy favour to obtain! | |
| So shall thy foe give to himself the lie; | |
| A goddess thou shalt prove; and happy I! | | | | |
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