| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | On the Death of Sir Philip Sidney | | By Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | GIVE pardon, blessèd soul, to my bold cries, | |
| If they, importunate, interrupt the song | |
| Which now, with joyful notes, thou sing’st among | |
| The angel-choristers of heavenly skies. | |
| Give pardon eke, sweet soul, to my slow eyes, | 5 |
| That since I saw thee now it is so long, | |
| And yet the tears that unto thee belong | |
| To thee as yet they did not sacrifice. | |
| I did not know that thou wert dead before; | |
| I did not feel the grief I did sustain; | 10 |
| The greater stroke astonisheth the more; | |
| Astonishment takes from us sense of pain; | |
| I stood amazed when others’ tears begun, | |
| And now begin to weep when they have done. | | | | |
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