Page:An English Garner Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (Volume 1 1877).pdf/269

"To men! Ah, they, alas, like wretched be
And subject to the heaven's ordinance;
Bound to abide whatever they decree,
Their best redress, is their best sufferance.
  How then can they, like wretched, comfort me?
  The which no less, need comforted to be."

"Then to myself, will I my sorrow mourn,
Sith none alive like sorrowful remains;
And to myself, my plaints shall back return,
To pay their usury with doubled pains.
  The woods, the hills, the rivers shall resound
  The mournful accent of my sorrow's ground."

"Woods, hills and rivers now are desolate;
Sith he is gone the which them all did grace:
And all the fields do wail their widow-state;
Sith death, their fairest flower did late deface.
  The fairest flower in field that ever grew,
  Was ASTROPHEL: that 'was,' we all may rue."

"What cruel hand of cursèd foe unknown,
Hath cropped the stalk which bore so fair a flower?
Untimely cropped, before it well were grown,
And clean defacèd in untimely hour.
  Great loss to all that ever him see,
  Great loss to all, but greatest loss to me."