Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Odes

The Lover determineth to serve faithfully

SINCE Love will needs that I shall love,

Of very force I must agree:

And since no chance may it remove,

In wealth and in adversity,

I shall alway myself apply

To serve and suffer patiently.

Though for good will I find but hate,

And cruelly my life to waste,

And though that still a wretched state

Should pine my days unto the last,

Yet I profess it willingly

To serve and suffer patiently.

For since my heart is bound to serve,

And I not ruler of mine own,

Whatso befall, till that I sterve

By proof full well it shall be known,

That I shall still myself apply

To serve and suffer patiently.

Yea though my grief find no redress,

But still increase before mine eyes,

Though my reward be cruelness,

With all the harm hap can devise,

Yet I profess it willingly

To serve and suffer patiently.

Yea though Fortune her pleasant face

Should shew, to set me up aloft,

And straight my wealth for to deface,

Should writhe away, as she doth oft,

Yet would I still myself apply

To serve and suffer patiently.

There is no grief, no smart, no woe,

That yet I feel, or after shall,

That from this mind may make me go;

And whatsoever me befall,

I do profess it willingly

To serve and suffer patiently.