Sonnet 40. My heart the Anvil where my thoughts do beat

Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

[First printed in 1594 (No. 44), and in all later editions.]

MY heart the Anvil where my thoughts do beat;

My words the Hammers fashioning my Desire;

My breast the Forge including all the heat,

Love is the Fuel which maintains the fire.

My sighs the Bellows which the flame increaseth,

Filling mine ears with noise and nightly groaning.

Toiling with pain, my labour never ceaseth;

In grievous Passions, my woes still bemoaning.

My eyes with tears against the fire striving,

Whose scorching glede, my heart to cinders turneth:

But with those drops, the flame again reviving

Still more and more it, to my torment burneth.

With SISYPHUS thus do I roll the stone,

And turn the wheel with damnèd IXION.