| Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845. | | | | Psalme CXXIX | | VI. Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke |
| | Sæpe expugnaverunt.
OFTE, and ever from my youth, | |
| Soe now Israël may say: | |
| Israël may say for truth, | |
| Ofte and ever my decay | |
| From my youth their force hath sought, | 5 |
| Yet effect it never wrought. | |
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| Unto them my back did yeeld | |
| Place and paine: O height of woe! | |
| Where, as in a plowed field, | |
| Long and deepe did furrowes goe. | 10 |
| But, O just Jehova, thou | |
| Hast their plow-ropes cutt in two! | |
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| Tell me, you that Sion hate, | |
| What you think shall be your end? | |
| Terror shall your mindes amate, | 15 |
| Blush and shame your faces shend: | |
| Marke the wheate on howses’ topp; | |
| Such your harvest, such your cropp. | |
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| Wither shall you where you stand; | |
| Gather’d? noe: but wanting sapp, | 20 |
| Filling neither reaper’s hand, | |
| Nor the binder’s inbowd lapp. | |
| Nay, who you shall reape, or bind, | |
| Common kindnesse shall not find. | |
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| Such as travail by the way, | 25 |
| Where as they their paines imploy, | |
| Shall not once saluting say, | |
| “God speed friendes, God give you joy; | |
| He in whome all blessings raignes | |
| Blesse your selves, and blesse your paines.” | 30 | | | |
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