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Home  »  The Poetical Works by Sir Thomas Wyatt  »  He lamenteth that he had ever Cause to doubt his Lady’s Faith

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–42). The Poetical Works. 1880.

Odes

He lamenteth that he had ever Cause to doubt his Lady’s Faith

DEEM as ye list upon good cause,

I may or think of this, or that;

But what, or why myself best knows

Whereby I think and fear not.

But thereunto I may well think

The doubtful sentence of this clause;

‘I would it were not as I think;

I would I thought it were not.’

For if I thought it were not so,

Though it were so, it grieved me not;

Unto my thought it were as tho’

I hearkened though I hear not.

At that I see I cannot wink,

Nor from my thought so let it go;

‘I would it were not as I think;

I would I thought it were not.’

Lo! how my thought might make me free,

Of that perchance it needs not.

Perchance none doubt the dread I see;

I shrink at that I bear not.

But in my heart this word shall sink,

Until the proof may better be;

‘I would it were not as I think;

I would I thought it were not.’

If it be not, shew no cause why

I should so think, then care I not;

For I shall so myself apply

To be that I appear not.

That is, as one that shall not shrink

To be your own until I die;

‘And if that be not as I think,

Likewise to think it is not.’