| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The Eighth Decade
Sonnet I. Persèver ever, and have never done! | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | PERSÈVER ever, and have never done! | |
| You weeping accent of my weary song! | |
| O do not you eternal passions shun; | |
| But be you true, and everlasting long! | |
| Say that she doth requite you with disdain; | 5 |
| Yet fortified with hope, endure your fortune! | |
| Though cruel now, she will be kind again; | |
| Such haps as those, such love’s as yours importune! | |
| Though she protests the faithfullest severity | |
| Inexecrable beauty is inflicting; | 10 |
| Kindness, in time, will pity your sincerity! | |
| Though now it be your fortune’s interdicting. | |
| For some can say, whose loves have known like passion, | |
| “Women are kind by kind, and coy for fashion.” | | | | |
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