Sonnet XX. If Beauty bright be doubled with a frown

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

IF BEAUTY bright be doubled with a frown,

That PITY cannot shine through to my bliss;

And DISDAIN’s vapours are thus overgrown,

That my life’s light to me quite darkened is.

Why trouble I the world then with my cries,

The air with sighs, the earth below with tears?

Since I live hateful to those ruthful eyes;

Vexing with my untuned moan, her dainty ears.

If I have loved her dearer than my breath,

(My breath that calls the heaven to witness it)

And still hold her most dear until my death;

And if that all this cannot move one whit:

Yet let her say that she hath done me wrong,

To use me thus and know I loved so long.