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Home  »  The Poetical Works  »  Complaint that his Lady, after she knew his Love, kept her Face always hidden from him

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–47). The Poetical Works. 1880.

Songs and Sonnets

Complaint that his Lady, after she knew his Love, kept her Face always hidden from him

I NEVER saw my Lady lay apart

Her cornet black, in cold nor yet in heat,

Sith first she knew my grief was grown so great;

Which other fancies driveth from my heart,

That to myself I do the thought reserve,

The which unwares did wound my woful breast;

But on her face mine eyes might never rest.

Yet since she knew I did her love and serve,

Her golden tresses clad alway with black,

Her smiling looks that hid thus evermore,

And that restrains which I desire so sore.

So doth this cornet govern me alack!

In summer, sun, in winter’s breath, a frost;

Whereby the light of her fair looks I lost.