Sonnet XLII. Pass all! Ah, no! No jot will be omitted

Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609)

PASS all! Ah, no! No jot will be omitted,

Now though my sun within the water rest;

Yet doth his scalding fury still infest

Into this sign. While that my PHŒBUS flitted,

Thou moved these streams; whose courses thou committed

To me, thy Water-man bound! and addrest

To pour out endless drops upon that soil

Which withers most, when it is watered best!

Cease, floods! and to your channels, make recoil!

Strange floods, which on my fire burn like oil!

Thus whiles mine endless furies higher ran,

Thou! thou, PARTHENOPHE! my rage begun;

Sending thy beams, to heat my fiery sun:

Thus am I Water-man, and Fire-man!