Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
DiellaSonnet XXIV. When leaden-hearted sleep had shut mine eyes
Richard Linche (fl. 15961601)W
and close o’erdrawn their windowlets of light;
Whose wateriness the fire of grief so dries,
that weep they could no longer, sleep they might!
Methought, I sank down to a pool of grief,
and then, methought, such sinking much did please me:
But when I, down was plunged past all relief;
with flood-filled mouth, I called that some would ease me!
Whereat, methought, I saw my dearest Love,
fearing my drowning, reach her hand to mine;
Who pulled so hard to get me up above,
that with the pull, sleep did forsake mine eyen.
But when awaked, I saw ’twas but a dream;
I wished to have slept, and perished in that stream.