That the Power of Love excuseth the Folly of loving

SINCE love is such as that ye wot

Cannot always be wisely used;

I say therefore then blame me not,

Though I therein have been abused.

For as with cause I am accused,

Guilty I grant such was my lot;

And though it cannot be excused,

Yet let such folly be forgot.

For in my years of reckless youth

Methought the power of love so great;

That to his laws I bound my truth,

And to my will there was no let.

Me list no more so far to fet;

Such fruit! lo! as of love ensu’th;

The gain was small that was to get,

And of the loss the less the ruth.

And few there is but first or last,

A time in love once shall they have;

And glad I am my time is past,

Henceforth my freedom to withsave.

Now in my heart there shall I grave

The granted grace that now I taste;

Thanked be fortune that me gave

So fair a gift, so sure and fast.

Now such as have me seen ere this,

When youth in me set forth his kind;

And folly framed my thought amiss,

The fault whereof now well I find;

Lo! since that so it is assign’d,

That unto each a time there is,

Then blame the lot that led my mind,

Some time to live in love’s bliss.

But from henceforth I do protest,

By proof of that that I have past,

Shall never cease within my breast

The power of Love so late outcast:

The knot thereof is knit full fast,

And I thereto so sure profess’d

For evermore with me to last

The power wherein I am possess’d.