| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Sonnets after Astrophel, etc. | | Sonnet IV. Tears, vows and prayers gain the hardest hearts | | Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) |
| | | TEARS, vows and prayers gain the hardest hearts: | |
| Tears, vows and prayers have I spent in vain. | |
| Tears cannot soften flint, nor vows convert. | |
| Prayers prevail not with a quaint disdain. | |
| I lose my tears, where I have lost my love, | 5 |
| I vow my faith, where faith is not regarded, | |
| I pray in vain a merciless to move; | |
| So rare a faith ought better be rewarded. | |
| Though frozen will may not be thawed with tears, | |
| Though my soul’s idol scorneth all my vows, | 10 |
| Though all my prayers be made to deafened ears, | |
| No favour though the cruel Fair allows; | |
| Yet will I weep, vow, pray to cruel She: | |
| Flint, frost, disdain; wears, melts and yields, we see. | | | | |
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