Lament my loss, my labor, and my pain, All ye that hear my woeful plaint and cry; If ever man might once your heart constrain To pity words of right, it should be I, That since the time that youth in me did reign My pleasant years to bondage did apply, Which as it was I purpose to declare, Whereby my friends hereafter may beware. And if perchance some list to muse What meaneth me so plainly for to write, My good intent the fault of it shall 'scuse, Which mean nothing, but truly to indite The craft and care, the grief and long abuse Of lover's law and eke her puissant might, Which though that man oft times by pain doth know, Little they wot which ways the jealous doth grow. Yet well ye know it will renew my smart Thus to rehearse the pains that I have past; My hand doth shake, my pen scant doth his part, My body quakes, my wits begin to waste: 'Twixt heat and cold, in fear I feel my heart Panting for pain, and thus, as all aghast I do remain, scant wotting what I write, Pardon me then, rudely though I indite. And patiently, O reader, I thee pray, Take in good part this work as it is meant, And grieve thee not with aught that I shall say, Since with goodwill this book abroad is sent To tell men how in youth I did assay What love did mean, and now I it repent: That musing me my friends might well beware, And keep them free from all such pain and care. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET WRITTEN IN THE FALL OF 1914: 2 by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY THE LAST LANDLORD by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN THE EMANCIPATION OF HIS MISTRESS' PERFECTIONS by FRANCIS BEAUMONT PSALM 93 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE FANCY-LAND by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE STRAFFORD; A TRAGEDY by ROBERT BROWNING EXTRACTS FROM THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR CAYENNE by FRANK GELETT BURGESS |