THE ABSENT LOVER FINDETH ALL HIS ABSENCE, absenting causeth me to complain, My sorrowful complaints abiding in distress; And departing most privy increaseth my pain, Thus live I uncomforted wrapped all in heaviness. In heaviness I am wrapped, devoid of all solace, Neither pastime nor pleasure can revive my dull wit, My spirits be all taken, and death doth me menace, With his fatal knife the thread for to kit. For to cut the thread of this wretched life, I see it availeth not, yet must I be pensive, Her face she hath turned with countenance contrarious, And clean from her presence she hath exiled me, Wandering all about as one without mate; What remedy, alas! to rejoice my woful heart, With sighs suspiring most ruefully; Now welcome! I am ready to depart; Farewell all pleasure! welcome pain and smart! HE SEEKETH COMFORT IN PATIENCE. PATIENCE! for I have wrong And dare not shew wherein; OF THE POWER OF LOVE OVER THE WILL ye see what wonders Love hath Then come and look at me. [wrought? There need no where else to be sought, In me ye may them see. For unto that, that men may see Most monstrous thing of kind, Myself may best compared be; Love hath me so assign'd. There is a rock in the salt flood, A rock of such nature, That draweth the iron from the wood, And leaveth the ship unsure. She is the rock, the ship am I; That rock my deadly foe, That draweth me there where I must die, A bird there fleeth, and that but one, That when her days be spent and gone, And I with her may well compare The flame whereof doth aye repair My life when it is gone. HE LAMENTETH THAT HE HAD EVER CAUSE TO DOUBT HIS LADY'S FAITH. DEEM as ye list upon good cause, I may or think of this, or that; For if I thought it were not so, Lo! how my thought might make me free, Of that perchance it needs not. But in my heart this word shall sink, If it be not, shew no cause why To be that I appear not. That is, as one that shall not shrink 'And if that be not as I think, Likewise to think it is not.' THE RECURED LOVER EXULTETH IN HIS FREEDOM, AND VOWETH TO REMAIN FREE UNTIL DEATH. I AM as I am, and so will I be ; But how that I am, none knoweth truly. I do not rejoice, nor yet complain, And use the means since folks will feign; Yet I am as I am, be it pleasure or pain. Divers do judge as they do trow, Some of pleasure and some of woe, Yet for all that nothing they know; But I am as I am, wheresoever I go. But since judgers do thus decay, Let every man his judgment say; I will it take in sport and play, For I am as I am, whosoever say nay. Who judgeth well, well God him send; Who judgeth evil, God them amend; To judge the best therefore intend, For I am as I am, and so will I end. Yet some there be that take delight To judge folks' thought for envy and spite; But whether they judge me wrong or right. I am as I am, and so do I write. Praying you all that this do read, But how that is I leave to you; And from this mind I will not flee, That I am as I am, and so will he. |