<h2> VII </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">YET, being so chill’d, do we not chide the sun,<br/>
<span class="i2">And say he wilful hides his face away,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Say ’tis his will makes the world drear and dun,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And takes the golden glory from the day?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">The envious rack we rather should reproach,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That comes betwixt us in despite of him,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Rebellious powers, that on his reign encroach,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And, black themselves, his brightness joy to dim.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">So when the troubling mischiefs of the time,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Or baser minds, bent upon marring thee,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Stole moments of thy favour, then my rhyme</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Slander’d thy love and slurr’d thy constancy.</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Yet the sun’s self unstain’d and bright remains,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">And my heart knew thy stains were not thy stains.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> VIII </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">IF wrongfully I moan’d thy ‘pretty wrongs’,<br/>
<span class="i2">When I was ’sometime absent from thy heart’,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">O none so trusting but to him belongs</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Some moody moment of his mortal part!</span><br/>
<span class="i0">No man doth Nature make whose trust doth ever</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Unveering with all winds point still the same;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">None is so whole in health he knows no fever</span><br/>
<span class="i0">To shake the firm composure of his frame.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">My love so wholly thine, thy worth so dear,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Made each thine absence so distract my breast,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That in his turmoil faith sometime to fear</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Converted, doubting most when most ’twas blest.</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Because mine own heart lone without thee seem’d,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Me absent from thy heart I falsely deem’d.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> IX </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">I WRIT how once I wander’d from thy side,<br/>
<span class="i2">Serving the strong suggestions of my blood,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Only to prove from worse things vainly tried</span><br/>
<span class="i0">How far more precious grew thy sum of good.</span><br/>
<span class="i0">If I so lov’d thee, what is my defence,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That thy dear love fail’d then my steps to stay,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That idle hours were idly given to sense,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And soul forsaken at the call of clay?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">O let love grant excuse; my sensual part</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Dwelt ever far from pure untainted thee;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">It held no conversation with my heart,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Nor, us’d or check’d, could be thine injury.</span><br/>
<span class="i2">If once it triumph’d, carrying me away,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">It stole but earth; my soul did with thee stay.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> X </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">IF that my sensual deed had stol’n from thee<br/>
<span class="i2">Aught that were part of thy most precious love,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Or made to swerve the loving soul of me,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That to thy service it should duller prove;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Had’t made to me thy grace less gracious seem,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Thy worth less worth, thy love a smaller prize,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Or bated aught of thy most rich esteem,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Which still grew richer in thy servant’s eyes;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Then were it fault too foul to find excuse,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And all I writ of thee were vows untrue;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">My verse were nought but idle poet’s use,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Conceit’s worn weeds lac’d o’er with wording new.</span><br/>
<span class="i2">But ’twas not so; though true my love before,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">’Twas thenceforth purg’d, and priz’d thee all the more.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> XI </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">WHEREFORE should I mine own heart not unfold,<br/>
<span class="i3">And his true workings to the world disclose?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Why self-unlocking for unseemly hold,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Which me, as I show’d others, human shows?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">If I to Nature held her truthful glass,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And on the stage life’s self did strive to set,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Creating thousand shadows that should pass</span><br/>
<span class="i0">For very substance when men’s eyes they met;</span><br/>
<span class="i0">If there I imag’d love, hate, doubt, and trust,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">If all the pageant of the mortal heart,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Might not one say: ‘This man within him must</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Have learn’d from Nature what he shap’d in art’?</span><br/>
<span class="i2">All passions’ depths he only can reveal</span><br/>
<span class="i2">Who doth them all within him living feel.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/ornament.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="138" alt="Ornament" /></div>
<h2> XII </h2>
<div class="block">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">WHENCE came it that I knew in others’ case<br/>
<span class="i3">How bitter-sweet and tyrant-slave is love,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">How quick to jealous doubt it yieldeth place,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">If mine own self did ne’er his power prove?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Whence knew I the deep sense that in the soul</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Is thrill’d and thrall’d by perfect beauty’s sight,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">If never beauty did myself control</span><br/>
<span class="i0">With all the mastery of sovran might?</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Since so my heart laid bare what it contain’d</span><br/>
<span class="i0">Of understanding of love’s mysteries,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">And nought of thine or mine our loving stain’d,</span><br/>
<span class="i0">That I should hide it from misprising eyes,</span><br/>
<span class="i2">No shame or scruple might my judgement see</span><br/>
<span class="i2">To tell of that true love I bore to thee.</span><br/></p>
</div>
</div></div>
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