XLVI. I curst thee oft, I pity now thy case

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

I CURST thee oft, I pity now thy case,

Blind-hitting boy! since she, that thee and me

Rules with a beck, so tyrannizeth thee,

That thou must want or food or dwelling place.

For she protests to “banish thee her face.”

Her face! O LOVE, a rogue thou then shouldst be!

“If LOVE learn not alone to love and see,

Without desire to feed of further grace.”

Alas, poor wag! that now a scholar art

To such a schoolmistress, whose lessons new

Thou needs must miss; and so, thou needs must smart!

Yet Dear! let me his pardon get of you,

So long (though he from book myche to desire)

Till without fuel, you can make hot fire.