Sonnet VI. Unhappy sentence! Worst of worst of pains

Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)

UNHAPPY sentence! Worst of worst of pains,

To be in darksome silence, out of ken,

Banished from all that bliss the world contains,

And thrust from out the companies of men.

Unhappy sentence! Worse than worst of deaths,

Never to see FIDESSA’s lovely face!

O better were I lose ten thousand breaths,

Than ever live in such unseen disgrace!

Unhappy sentence! Worse than pains of hell,

To live in self-tormenting griefs alone;

Having my heart, my prison and my cell,

And there consumed, without relief to moan!

If that the sentence so unhappy be,

Then what am I, that gave the same to me?