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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  66. My Lady’s Tears John Dowland’s Third and Last Book of Songs or Airs

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Anonymous. 1603

66. My Lady’s Tears John Dowland’s Third and Last Book of Songs or Airs

    I SAW my Lady weep, 
And Sorrow proud to be advancèd so 
In those fair eyes where all perfections keep. 
    Her face was full of woe; 
But such a woe (believe me) as wins more hearts         5
Than Mirth can do with her enticing parts. 
 
    Sorrow was there made fair, 
And Passion wise; Tears a delightful thing; 
Silence beyond all speech, a wisdom rare: 
    She made her sighs to sing,  10
And all things with so sweet a sadness move 
As made my heart at once both grieve and love. 
 
    O fairer than aught else 
The world can show, leave off in time to grieve! 
Enough, enough: your joyful look excels:  15
    Tears kill the heart, believe. 
O strive not to be excellent in woe, 
Which only breeds your beauty’s overthrow.