Sonnet IV. Tears, vows and prayers gain the hardest hearts

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

TEARS, vows and prayers gain the hardest hearts:

Tears, vows and prayers have I spent in vain.

Tears cannot soften flint, nor vows convert.

Prayers prevail not with a quaint disdain.

I lose my tears, where I have lost my love,

I vow my faith, where faith is not regarded,

I pray in vain a merciless to move;

So rare a faith ought better be rewarded.

Though frozen will may not be thawed with tears,

Though my soul’s idol scorneth all my vows,

Though all my prayers be made to deafened ears,

No favour though the cruel Fair allows;

Yet will I weep, vow, pray to cruel She:

Flint, frost, disdain; wears, melts and yields, we see.