Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
DianaThe Fifth Decade. Sonnet VIII. Dear to my soul! then, leave me not forsaken!
Henry Constable (15621613)D
Fly not! My heart within thy bosom sleepeth!
Even from myself and sense I have betaken
Me unto thee (for whom my spirit weepeth).
And on the shore of that salt teary sea,
Couched in a bed of unseen seeming pleasure,
Where, in imaginary thoughts, thy fair self lay—
But being wak’d, robbed of my life’s best treasure,
I call the heavens, air, earth, and seas to hear
My love! my truth! and black disdained estate!
Beating the rocks with bellowings of despair;
Which still with plaints, my words reverberate.
Sighing, “Alas, what shall become of me?”
Whilst E