| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 3. Taking my pen, with words to cast my woe | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1599 (No. 6), and in all later editions.] |
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TAKING my pen, with words to cast my woe, | |
| Duly to count the sum of all my cares; | |
| I find, my griefs innumerable grow: | |
| The reck’nings rise to millions of despairs. | |
| And thus dividing of my fatal hours: | 5 |
| The payments of my Love, I read and cross; | |
| Subtracting, set my Sweets unto my Sours. | |
| My Joys’ arrearage leads me to my loss. | |
| And thus mine eyes a debtor to thine eye, | |
| Which by extortion gaineth all their looks; | 10 |
| My heart hath paid such grievous usury, | |
| That all their wealth lies in thy Beauty’s books, | |
| And all is Thine which hath been due to me; | |
| And I a bankrupt, quite undone by Thee! | | | |
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