Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
PhillisSonnet VII. How languisheth the primrose of love’s garden!
Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)H
How trill her tears, th’ elixir of my senses!
Ambitious sickness, what doth thee so harden?
Oh spare, and plague thou me for her offences!
Ah roses, love’s fair roses, do not languish;
Blush through the milk-white veil that holds you covered.
If heat or cold may mitigate your anguish,
I ’ll burn, I ’ll freeze, but you shall be recovered.
Good God, would beauty mark how she is crased,
How but one shower of sickness makes her tender,
Her judgments then to mark my woes amazed,
To mercy should opinion’s fort surrender!
And I,—oh would I might, or would she meant it!
Should hery love, who now in heart lament it.