| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Elegy XI. Was it decreed by Fate’s too certain doom | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | WAS it decreed by Fate’s too certain doom | |
| That under Cancer’s Tropic (where the Sun | |
| Still doth his race, in hottest circuit run) | |
| My mind should dwell (and in none other room), | |
| Where comforts all be burnt before the bloom? | 5 |
| Was it concluded by remorseless Fate | |
| That underneath th’ Erymanthian Bear, | |
| Beneath the Lycaonian axletree | |
| (Where ceaseless snows, and frost’s extremity | |
| Hold jurisdiction) should remain my Fear; | 10 |
| Where all mine hopes be nipt before the Bear? | |
| Was it thus ordered that, till my death’s date, | |
| When PH&140;BUS runs on our meridian line, | |
| When mists fall down beneath our hemisphere, | |
| And CYNTHIA, with dark antipodes doth shine, | 15 |
| That my Despair should hold his Mansion there? | |
| Where did the fatal Sisters this assign? | |
| Even when this judgement to them was awarded; | |
| The silent Sentence issued from her eyne, | |
| Which neither pity, nor my cares regarded. | 20 | | | |
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