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My body is dissolved with sufferance in vain; Relenting, ay, and grace I hoped should yet betide;
But rigour still hath waxed on me and changed my case And love hath left me bound, afflicted, weeping-eyed.
How long shall I anights distracted be for love Of thee? How long th’ assaults of grief and woes abide?
Thou, thou enjoy’st repose and comfortable sleep, Nor of the mis’ries reckst by which my heart is wried.
I watch the stars for wake and pray that the belov’d May yet to me relent and bid my tears be dried.
The pains of long desire have wasted me away; Estrangement and disdain my body sore have tried.
“Be thou not hard of heart,” quoth I. Had ye but deigned To visit me in dreams, I had been satisfied.
But when ye saw my writ, the standard ye o’erthrew Of faith, your favours grudged and aught of grace denied.
Nay, though ye read therein discourse that sure should speak To heart and soul, no word thereunto ye replied,
But deemed yourself secure from every changing chance Nor recked the ebb and flow of Fortune’s treacherous tide.
Were my affliction thine, love’s anguish hadst thou dreed And in the flaming hell of long estrangement sighed.
Yet shall thou suffer that which I from thee have borne And with love’s woes thy heart shall yet be mortified.
The bitterness of false accusing shall thou taste And eke the thing reveal that thou art fain to hide;
Yea, he thou lov’st shall be hard-hearted, recking not Of fortune’s turns or fate’s caprices, in his pride.
Wherewith farewell, quoth I, and peace be on thee aye, What while the branches bend, what while the stars abide.
