The Lover comforteth himself with the Worthiness of his Love

WHEN raging love with extreme pain

Most cruelly distrains my heart;

When that my tears, as floods of rain,

Bear witness of my woful smart;

When sighs have wasted so my breath

That I lie at the point of death:

I call to mind the navy great

That the Greeks brought to Troy town:

And how the boisterous winds did beat

Their ships, and rent their sails adown;

Till Agamemnon’s daughter’s blood

Appeas’d the Gods that them withstood.

And how that in those ten years war

Full many a bloody deed was done;

And many a lord that came full far,

There caught his bane, alas! too soon;

And many a good knight overrun,

Before the Greeks had Helen won.

Then think I thus: ‘Sith such repair,

So long time war of valiant men,

Was all to win a lady fair,

Shall I not learn to suffer then?

And think my life well spent to be,

Serving a worthier wight than she?’

Therefore I never will repent,

But pains contented still endure;

For like as when, rough winter spent,

The pleasant spring straight draweth in ure;

So after raging storms of care,

Joyful at length may be my fare.