| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The Eighth Decade
Sonnet V. Sometimes in verse I praised, sometimes in verse I sigh’t | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | SOMETIMES in verse I praised, sometimes in verse I sigh’t. | |
| No more shall pen with love and beauty mell; | |
| But to my heart alone, my heart shall tell | |
| How unseen flames do burn it day and night. | |
| Lest flames give light, light bring my love to sight, | 5 |
| And my love prove my folly to excel. | |
| Wherefore my love burns like the fire of hell; | |
| Wherein is fire, and yet there is no light. | |
| For if one never loved like me; then why | |
| Skill-less blames he the thing he doth not know? | 10 |
| And he that so hath loved, should favour show; | |
| For he hath been a fool as well as I. | |
| Thus shall henceforth more pain, more folly have: | |
| And folly past, may justly pardon crave. | | | | |
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