Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Licia

Sonnet XXXI. Years, months, days, hours, in sighs I sadly spend

Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)

YEARS, months, days, hours, in sighs I sadly spend.

I black the night, wherein I sleepless toss.

I love my griefs, yet wish them at an end.

Thus time’s expense increaseth but my loss.

I musing stand, and wonder at my Love;

That in so fair, should be a heart of steel.

And then I think, my fancy to remove:

But then more painful I my passions feel.

Thus must I love, sweet Fair, until I die;

And your unkindness doth my love increase:

I conquered am, I cannot it deny.

My life must end; yet shall my love not cease.

Then heavens, make LICIA fair most kind to me;

Or with my life, my love may finished be!