Of the Power of Love over the yielden Lover. Odes. Sir Thomas Wyatt. 1880. The Poetical Works

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

Odes

Of the Power of Love over the yielden Lover


WILL ye see what wonders Love hath wrought?
Then come and look at me.
There need no where else to be sought,
In me ye may them see.
For unto that, that men may see	5
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,	10
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,	15
And robbeth my heart me fro.
A bird there fleeth, and that but one,
Of her this thing ensueth;
That when her days be spent and gone,
With fire she reneweth.	20
And I with her may well compare
My love, that is alone;
The flame whereof doth aye repair
My life when it is gone.