| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXIII. Grief
To Sir Philip Sidney’s soul | | By Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | GIVE pardon, blessed soul! to my bold cries, | |
| If they, importune, interrupt thy song, | |
| Which now with joyful notes thou singst among | |
| The angels, quiristers of the heavenly skies. | |
| Give pardon eke, sweet soul! to my slow cries, | 5 |
| That since I saw thee it is now so long; | |
| And yet the tears that unto thee belong, | |
| To thee as yet they did not sacrifice; | |
| I did not know that thou wert dead before; | |
| I did not feel the grief I did sustain; | 10 |
| The greater stroke astonisheth the more, | |
| Astonishment takes from us sense of pain: | |
| I stood amazed when others’ tears begun, | |
| And now begin to weep when they have done. | | | | |
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