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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

An Elegy of a Woman’s Heart

Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639)

O FAITHLESS World! and thy more faithless part,

A Woman’s Heart!

The true Shop of Variety! where sits

Nothing but fits

And fevers of Desire, and pangs of Love;

Which toys remove!

Why was She born to please! or I, to trust

Words writ in dust!

Suff’ring her eyes to govern my despair;

My pain, for air!

And fruit of time rewarded with untruth,

The food of Youth!

Untrue She was: yet I believed her eyes,

(Instructed spies!)

Till I was taught, that Love was but a School

To breed a Fool!

Or sought She more, by triumphs of denial,

To make a trial,

How far her smiles commanded my weakness!

Yield, and confess!

Excuse no more thy folly! but, for cure,

Blush, and endure

As well thy shame, as Passions that were vain!

And think, ’tis gain

To know,—That Love, lodged in a Woman’s Breast,

Is but a guest!