XXXV
I have not spent the April
of my time,
The sweet of youth
in plotting in the air,
But do at first
adventure seek to climb,
Whilst flowers
of blooming years are green and fair.
I am no leaving of all-withering
age,
I have not suffered
many winter lours;
I feel no storm
unless my love do rage,
And then in grief
I spend both days and hours.
This yet doth comfort that
my flower lasted
Until it did approach
my sun too near;
And then, alas,
untimely was it blasted,
So soon as once
thy beauty did appear!
But after all, my comfort
rests in this,
That for thy sake my youth
decayed is.
XXXVI
O let my heart, my body, and
my tongue
Bleed forth the
lively streams of faith unfeigned,
Worship my saint
the gods and saints among,
Praise and extol
her fair that me hath pained!
O let the smoke of my suppressed
desire,
Raked up in ashes
of my burning breast,
Break out at length
and to the clouds aspire,
Urging the heavens
to afford me rest;
But let my body naturally
descend
Into the bowels
of our common mother,
And to the very
centre let it wend,
When it no lower
can, her griefs to smother!
And yet when I so low do buried
lie,
Then shall my love ascend
unto the sky.
XXXVII
Fair is my love that feeds
among the lilies,
The lilies growing
in that pleasant garden
Where Cupid’s
mount, that well beloved hill is,
And where that
little god himself is warden.
See where my love sits in
the beds of spices,
Beset all round
with camphor, myrrh, and roses,
And interlaced
with curious devices,
Which her from
all the world apart incloses.
There doth she tune her lute
for her delight,
And with sweet
music makes the ground to move;
Whilst I, poor
I, do sit in heavy plight,
Wailing alone
my unrespected love,
Not daring rush into so rare
a place,
That gives to her, and she
to it, a grace.
XXXVIII
Was never eye did see my mistress’
face,
Was never ear
did hear Fidessa’s tongue,
Was never mind
that once did mind her grace,
That ever thought
the travail to be long.
When her I see, no creature
I behold,
So plainly say
these advocates of love,
That now do fear
and now to speak are bold,
Trembling apace
when they resolve to prove.
These strange effects do show
a hidden power,
A majesty all
base attempts reproving,
That glads or
daunts as she doth laugh or lower;
Surely some goddess
harbours in their moving
Who thus my Muse from base
attempts hath raised,
Whom thus my Muse beyond compare
hath praised.