As power and wit will me assist, My will shall will even as ye list. For as ye list my will is bent In everything to be content, To serve in love till life be spent; So you reward my love thus meant, Even as ye list. To feign or fable is not my mind, Nor to refuse such as I find, But as a lamb of humble kind Or bird in cage, to be assign'd Even as ye list. When all the flock is come and gone, Mine eye and heart, agreeth in one, Hath chosen you, only, alone, To be my joy, or else my moan, Even as ye list. Joy if pity appear in place, Moan if disdain do show his face, Yet crave I not, as in this case, But as ye lead to follow the trace Even as ye list. Some in words much love can feign, And some for words give words again: Thus words for words in words remain, And yet at last words do obtain Even as ye list. To crave in words I will eschew, And love in deed I will ensue; It is my mind both whole and true, And for my truth I pray you rue Even as ye list. Dear heart, I bid your heart farewell, With better heart than tongue can tell; Yet take this tale, as true as gospel, Ye may my life save or expel Even as ye list. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SEARCH (1) by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 8. MUHAIMIN by EDWIN ARNOLD TO SWEET MEAT, SOUR SAUCE; AN IMITATION OF THEOCRITUS OR ANACREON by PHILIP AYRES THE BLACKBIRD by WILLIAM BARNES A SPRAY OF HONEYSUCKLE by MARY EMILY NEELEY BRADLEY DAY AND NIGHT by RUPERT BROOKE |