| |
| LIKE as the bird within the cage inclosed, | |
| The door unsparred, her foe the hawk without, | |
| ’Twixt death and prison piteously oppressed, | |
| Whether for to choose standeth in doubt; | |
| Lo, so do I, which seek to bring about, | 5 |
| Which should be best by determination, | |
| By loss of life liberty, or life by prison. | |
| O mischief by mischief to be redressed, | |
| Where pain is best, there lieth but little pleasure, | |
| By short death better to be delivered, | 10 |
| Than bide in painful life, thraldom, and dolour: | |
| Small is the pleasure, where much pain we suffer, | |
| Rather therefore to choose me thinketh wisdom, | |
| By loss of life liberty, than life by prison. | |
| And yet methinks, although I live and suffer, | 15 |
| I do but wait a time and fortune’s chance; | |
| Oft many things do happen in one hour; | |
| That which oppress’d me now may me advance. | |
| In time is trust, which by death’s grievance | |
| Is wholly lost. Then were it not reason | 20 |
| By death to choose liberty, and not life by prison. | |
| But death were deliverance, where life lengths pain, | |
| Of these two ills let see now choose the best, | |
| This bird to deliver that here doth plain: | |
| What say, ye lovers? which shall be the best? | 25 |
| In cage thraldom, or by the hawk opprest: | |
| And which to choose make plain conclusion, | |
| By loss of life liberty, or life by prison? | |
| |
