| Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of King James the First. 1847. | | | | Confession and Contrition | | XXVII. Anonymous |
| | From “The Passion of a Discontented Mind”
O CURSED custome, causing mischiefe still, | |
| Too long thy craft my sences hath misled; | |
| Too long haue I beene slaue vnto thy will, | |
| Too long my soule on bitter sweetes haue fed: | |
| Now surfeiting with thy hell-poysned cates, | 5 |
| In deepe repent, her former folly hates; | |
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| And humbly comes with sorrow-rented hart, | |
| With blubbred eyes and hands vprear’d to heauen, | |
| To play a poore lamenting mawdline’s part, | |
| That would weepe streams of bloud to be forgiuen: | 10 |
| But oh, I feare mine eyes are drain’d so drie, | |
| That though I would, yet now I cannot crie. | |
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| If any eye therefore can spare a teare | |
| To fill the well-springs that must wet my cheekes, | |
| O let that eye to this sad feast draw neare; | 15 |
| Refuse me not, my humble soule beseekes; | |
| For all the teares mine eyes have euer wept | |
| Were now too little, had they all bin kept. | | | | |
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