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Home  »  The Poetical Works by Sir Thomas Wyatt  »  That the Life of the unregarded Lover is worse than Death

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

Odes

That the Life of the unregarded Lover is worse than Death

WHAT death is worse than this!

When my delight,

My weal, my joy, my bliss,

Is from my sight

Both day and night,

My life, alas! I miss.

For though I seem alive,

My heart is hence;

Thus bootless for to strive

Out of presence

Of my defence

Toward my death I drive.

Heartless, alas! what man

May long endure!

Alas! how live I then;

Since no recure

May me assure

My life I may well ban.

Thus doth my torment grow

In deadly dread

Alas! who might live so;

Alive, as dead:

Alive, to lead

A deadly life in woe.