Sonnet XIV. I wrote in Mirrha’s bark, and as I wrote

Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)

I WROTE in Mirrha’s bark, and as I wrote,

Poor Mirrha wept because I wrote forsaken;

’Twas of thy pride I sung in weeping note,

When as her leaves great moan for pity maken.

The falling fountains from the mountains falling,

Cried out, alas, so fair and be so cruel!

And babbling echo never ceasèd calling,

Phillis, disdain is fit for none but truthless.

The rising pines wherein I had engraved

Thy memory consulting with the wind,

Are trucemen to thy heart and thoughts depraved,

And say, thy kind should not be so unkind.

But, out alas! so fell is Phillis fearless,

That she hath made her Damon well-nigh tearless.

[XV. and XVI.—These poems are not in sonnet form and are omitted.]