by Thomas Wyatt
Since well ye wot, that in my heart
I mean ye not but honestly.
Refuse me not without cause why; 5
For think me not to be unjust;
Since that by lot of fantasy,
This careful knot needs knit I must.
Mistrust me not, though some there be,
That fain would spot my steadfastness: 10
Believe them not, since that ye see,
The proof is not, as they express.
Forsake me not, till I deserve;
Nor hate me not, till I offend;
Destroy me not, till that I swerve: 15
But since ye know what I intend,
Disdain me not, that am your own;
Refuse me not, that am so true;
Mistrust me not, till all be known;
Forsake me not now for no new. 20
THE LOVER LAMENTETH HIS ESTATE WITH SUIT FOR GRACE
FOR want of will in woe I plain,
Under colour of soberness;
Renewing with my suit my pain,
My wanhope with your steadfastness.
Awake therefore of gentleness; 5
Regard, at length, I you require,
My swelting pains of my desire.
Betimes who giveth willingly,
Redoubled thanks aye doth deserve;
And I that sue unfeignedly, 10
In fruitless hope, alas! do sterve.
How great my cause is for to swerve,
And yet how steadfast is my suit,
Lo, here ye see: where is the fruit?
As hound that hath his keeper lost, 15
Seek I your presence to obtain;
In which my heart delighteth most,
And shall delight though I be slain.
You may release my band of pain;
Loose then the care that makes me cry 20
For want of help, or else I die.
I die though not incontinent;
By process, yet consumingly,
As waste of fire which doth relent:
If you as wilful will deny. 25
Wherefore cease of such cruelty,
And take me wholly in your grace;
Which lacketh will to change his place.
THE LOVER WAILETH HIS CHANGED JOYS
IF every man might him avaunt
Of fortune’s friendly cheer;
It was myself, I must it grant,
For I have bought it dear:
And dearly have I held also 5
The glory of her name,
In yielding her such tribute, lo,
As did set forth her fame.
Sometime I stood so in her grace,
That as I would require, 10
Each joy I thought did me embrace,
That furthered my desire:
And all those pleasures, lo, had I,
That fancy might support;
And nothing she did me deny 15
That was unto my comfort.
I had, what would you more, perdie?
Each grace that I did crave;
Thus Fortune’s will was unto me
All thing that I would have: 20
But all too rathe, alas the while,
She built on such a ground:
In little space, too great a guile
In her now have I found.
For she hath turned so her wheel, 25
That I, unhappy man,
May wail the time that I did feel
Wherewith she fed me than:
For broken now are her behests,
And pleasant looks she gave, 30
And therefore now all my requests
From peril cannot save.
Yet would I well it might appear
To her my chief regard;
Though my deserts have been too dear 35
To merit such reward:
Since Fortune’s will is now so bent
To plague me thus, poor man,
I must myself therewith content,
And bear it as I can. 40
TO HIS LOVE THAT HATH GIVEN HIM ANSWER OF REFUSAL
THE ANSWER that ye made to me, my dear,
When I did sue for my poor heart’s redress,
Hath so appall’d my countenance and my cheer,
That in this case I am all comfortless;
Since I of blame no cause can well express. 5
I have no wrong, where I can claim no right,
Nought ta’en me fro, where I have nothing had,
Yet of my woe I cannot so be quite;
Namely, since that another may be glad
With that, that thus in sorrow makes me sad. 10
Yet none can claim, I say, by former grant,
That knoweth not of any grant at all;
And by desert, I dare well make avaunt
Of faithful will; there is nowhere that shall
Bear you more truth, more ready at your call. 15
Now good then, call again that bitter word,
That touch’d your friend so near with pangs of pain;
And say, my dear, that it was said in bord:
Late, or too soon, let it not rule the gain,
Wherewith free will doth true desert retain. 20
THE LOVER DESCRIBETH HIS BEING TAKEN WITH SIGHT OF HIS LOVE
UNWARILY so was never no man caught,
With steadfast look upon a goodly face,
As I of late: for suddenly, methought,
My heart was torn out of his place.
Though mine eye the stroke from hers did slide, 5
And down directly to my heart it ran;
In help whereof the blood did glide,
And left my face both pale and wan.
Then was I like a man for woe amazed,
Or like the fowl that fleeth into the fire; 10
For while that I upon her beauty gazed,
The more I burn’d in my desire.
Anon the blood start in my face again,
Inflam’d with heat, that it had at my heart,
And brought therewith, throughout in every vein, 15
A quaking heat with pleasant smart.
Then was I like the straw, when that the flame
Is driven therein by force and rage of wind;
I cannot tell, alas, what I shall blame,
Nor what to seek, nor what to find. 20
But well I wot the grief doth hold me sore
In heat and cold, betwixt both hope and dread.
That, but her help to health doth me restore,
This restless life I may not lead.
THE LOVER EXCUSETH HIM OF WORDS, WHEREWITH HE WAS UNJUSTLY CHARGED
PERDIE! I said it not;
Nor never thought to do:
As well as I, ye wot,
I have no power thereto.
And if I did, the lot, 5
That first did me enchain,
May never slake the knot,
But straight it to my pain!
And if I did each thing,
That may do harm or woe, 10
Continually may wring
My heart, where so I go!
Report may always ring
Of shame on me for aye,
If in my heart did spring 15
The words that you do say.
And if I did, each star,
That is in heaven above,
May frown on me to mar
The hope I have in love! 20
And if I did, such war
As they brought unto Troy,
Bring all my life as far
From all his lust and joy!
And if I did so say, 25
The beauty that me bound,
Increase from day to day
More cruel to my wound!
With all the moan that may,
To plaint may turn my song; 30
My life may soon decay,
Without redress, by wrong!
If I be clear from thought,
Why do you then c
omplain?
Then is this thing but sought 35
To turn my heart to pain.
Then this that you have wrought,
You must it now redress;
Of right therefore you ought
Such rigour to repress. 40
And as I have deserved,
So grant me now my hire;
You know I never swerved,
You never found me liar.
For Rachel have I served, 45
For Leah cared I never;
And her I have reserved
Within my heart for ever.
THE LOVER CURSETH THE TIME WHEN FIRST HE FELL IN LOVE
WHEN first mine eyes did view and mark
Thy fair beauty to behold;
And when my ears listened to hark
The pleasant words, that thou me told;
I would as then I had been free 5
From ears to hear, and eyes to see.
And when my lips gan first to move,
Whereby my heart to thee was known,
And when my tongue did talk of love
To thee that hast true love down thrown; 10
I would my lips and tongue also
Had then been dumb, no deal to go.
And when my hands have handled ought
That thee hath kept in memory,
And when my feet have gone and sought 15
To find and get thee company,
I would, each hand a foot had been,
And I each foot a hand had seen.
And when in mind I did consent,
To follow this my fancy’s will, 20
And when my heart did first relent
To taste such bait, my life to spill,
I would my heart had been as thine,
Or else thy heart had been as mine.
THE LOVER DETERMINETH TO SERVE FAITHFULLY
SINCE Love will needs that I shall love,
Of very force I must agree:
And since no chance may it remove,
In wealth and in adversity,
I shall alway myself apply 5
To serve and suffer patiently.
Though for good will I find but hate,
And cruelly my life to waste,
And though that still a wretched state
Should pine my days unto the last, 10
Yet I profess it willingly
To serve and suffer patiently.
For since my heart is bound to serve,
And I not ruler of mine own,
Whatso befall, till that I sterve 15
By proof full well it shall be known,
That I shall still myself apply
To serve and suffer patiently.
Yea though my grief find no redress,
But still increase before mine eyes, 20
Though my reward be cruelness,
With all the harm hap can devise,
Yet I profess it willingly
To serve and suffer patiently.
Yea though Fortune her pleasant face 25
Should shew, to set me up aloft,
And straight my wealth for to deface,
Should writhe away, as she doth oft,
Yet would I still myself apply
To serve and suffer patiently. 30
There is no grief, no smart, no woe,
That yet I feel, or after shall,
That from this mind may make me go;
And whatsoever me befall,
I do profess it willingly 35
To serve and suffer patiently.
TO HIS UNKIND LOVE
WHAT rage is this? what furor? of what kind?
What power? what plague doth weary thus my mind?
Within my bones to rankle is assigned,
What poison pleasant sweet?
Lo, see, mine eyes flow with continual tears, 5
The body still away sleepless it wears,
My food nothing my fainting strength repairs,
Nor doth my limbs sustain.
In deep wide wound, the deadly stroke doth turn
To cureless scar that never shall return: 10
Go to, triumph, rejoice thy goodly turn,
Thy friend thou dost oppress.
Oppress thou dost, and hast of him no cure,
Nor yet my plaint no pity can procure,
Fierce tiger fell, hard rock without recure, 15
Cruel rebel to love.
Once may thou love, never beloved again,
So love thou still, and not thy love obtain,
So wrathful love, with spites of just disdain,
May threat thy cruel heart. 20
THE LOVER COMPLAINETH HIS ESTATE
I SEE, that chance hath chosen me
Thus secretly to live in pain,
And to another given the fee,
Of all my loss to have the gain:
By chance assign’d thus do I serve. 5
And other have that I deserve.
Unto myself sometime alone
I do lament my woful case;
But what availeth me to moan
Since truth and pity hath no place 10
In them, to whom I sue and serve?
And other have that I deserve.
To seek by mean to change this mind,
Alas, I prove, it will not be;
For in my heart I cannot find 15
Once to refrain, but still agree,
As bound by force, alway to serve,
And other have that I deserve.
Such is the fortune that I have,
To love them most that love me lest; 20
And to my pain to seek, and crave
The thing that other have possest:
So thus in vain alway I serve,
And other have that I deserve.
And till I may appease the heat, 25
If that my hap will hap so well,
To wail my woe my heart shall frete,
Whose pensive pain my tongue can tell;
Yet thus unhappy must I serve.
And other have that I deserve. 30
WHETHER LIBERTY BY LOSS OF LIFE, OR LIFE IN PRISON AND THRALDOM BE TO BE PREFERRED
LIKE as the bird within the cage inclosed,
The door unsparred, her foe the hawk without,
‘Twixt death and prison piteously oppressed,
Whether for to choose standeth in doubt;
Lo, so do I, which seek to bring about, 5
Which should be best by determination,
By loss of life liberty, or life by prison.
O mischief by mischief to be redressed,
Where pain is best, there lieth but little pleasure,
By short death better to be delivered, 10
Than bide in painful life, thraldom, and dolour:
Small is the pleasure, where much pain we suffer,
Rather therefore to choose me thinketh wisdom,
By loss of life liberty, than life by prison.
And yet methinks, although I live and suffer, 15
I do but wait a time and fortune’s chance;
Oft many things do happen in one hour;
That which oppress’d me now may me advance.
In time is trust, which by death’s grievance
Is wholly lost. Then were it not reason 20
By death to choose liberty, and not life by prison.
But death were deliverance, where life lengths pain,
Of these two ills let see now choose the best,
This bird to deliver that here doth plain:
What say, ye lovers? which shall be the best? 25
In cage thraldom, or by the hawk opprest:
And which to choose make plain conclusion,
By loss of life liberty, or life by prison?
HE RULETH NOT THOUGH HE REIGN OVER REALMS, THAT IS SUBJECT TO HIS OWN LUSTS
IF thou wilt mighty be, flee from the rage
Of cruel will; and see thou keep thee free
From the foul yoke of sensual bonda
ge:
For though thine empire stretch to Indian sea,
And for thy fear trembleth the farthest Thulè, 5
If thy desire have over thee the power,
Subject then art thou and no governor.
If to be noble and high thy mind be moved,
Consider well thy ground and thy beginning;
For he that hath each star in heaven fixed, 10
And gives the moon her horns, and her eclipsing,
Alike hath made the noble in his working;
So that wretched no way may thou be,
Except foul lust and vice do conquer thee.
All were it so thou had a flood of gold 15
Unto thy thirst, yet should it not suffice;
And though with Indian stones a thousand fold,
More precious than can thyself devise,
Ycharged were thy back; thy covetise,
And busy biting yet should never let 20
Thy wretched life, ne do thy death profet.
THE FAITHFUL LOVER GIVETH TO HIS MISTRESS HIS HEART AS HIS BEST AND ONLY TREASURE
TO seek each where where man doth live,
The sea, the land, the rock, the clive,
France, Spain, and Inde, and every where;
Is none a greater gift to give,
Less set by oft, and is so lief and dear, 5
Dare I well say, than that I give to year.
I cannot give broaches nor rings,
These goldsmith work, and goodly things,
Pierrie, nor pearl, orient and clear;
But for all that can no man bring 10
Lieffer jewel unto his lady dear,
Dare I well say, than that I give to year.
Nor I seek not to fetch it far;
Worse is it not tho’ it be narr,
And as it is, it doth appear 15
Uncounterfeit mistrust to bar.
It is both whole, and pure, withouten peer,
Dare I will say, the gift I give to year.
To thee therefore the same retain;
The like of thee to have again 20
France would I give, if mine it were.
Is none alive in whom doth reign
Lesser disdain; freely therefore lo! here
Dare I well give, I say, my heart to year.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE SORROW OF TRUE LOVERS’ PARTING
THERE was never nothing more me pain’d,
Nor more my pity mov’d,
As when my sweetheart her complain’d,
That ever she me lov’d.