| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 49. Thou leaden brain, which censur’st what I write | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1599 (No. 46), and in all later editions.] |
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THOU leaden brain, which censur’st what I write, | |
| And sayst my lines be dull, and do not move. | |
| I marvel not thou feelst not my Delight, | |
| Which never felt’st my fiery touch of Love! | |
| But thou, whose pen hath like a packhorse served, | 5 |
| Whose stomach unto gall hath turned thy food, | |
| Whose senses, like poor prisoners, hunger starved, | |
| Whose grief hath parched thy body, dried thy blood. | |
| Thou which hast scornèd life, and hated death; | |
| And in a moment, mad, sober, glad, and sorry; | 10 |
| Thou which hast banned thy thoughts, and curst thy birth, | |
| With thousand plagues more than in Purgatory: | |
| Thou, thus whose spirit, Love in his fire refines! | |
| Come thou and read, admire, applaud my Lines! | | | |
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