Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547)A Complaint by Night of the Lover Not Beloved
A
Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing;
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease;
The nightës car the stars about doth bring.
Calm is the sea; the waves work less and less:
So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing,
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.
For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring;
But by and by, the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang, that inwardly doth sting.
When that I think what grief it is again,
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.