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| O DEAR remembrance of my Lady’s eyes, | |
| In mind whose revolutions I revolve! | |
| To you, mine heart’s bright guide stars! my Soul cries | |
| Upon some happy Sentence to resolve. | |
| A Sentence either of my life or death! | 5 |
| So bail me from the dungeon of Despair! | |
| On you! I cry, with interrupted breath, | |
| On you! and none but you! to cross my care. | |
| My care to cross, least I be crucified, | |
| Above the patience of a human soul! | 10 |
| Do this! ah this! and still be glorified! | |
| Do this! and let eternities enrol | |
| Thy fame and name! Let them enrol for ever | |
| In lasting records of still lasting steel! | |
| Do this! ah this! and famous still persèver! | 15 |
| Which in another Age, thy ghost shall feel. | |
| Yet, howsoever, thou, with me shall deal; | |
| Thy beauty shall persèver in my Verse! | |
| And thine eyes’ wound, which thine heart would not heal! | |
| And my complaints, which could not thine heart pierce! | 20 |
| And thine hard heart, thy beauty’s shameful stain! | |
| And that foul stain, thine endless infamy! | |
| So, though Thou still in record do remain, | |
| The records reckon but thine obloquy! | |
| When on the paper, which my Passion bears, | 25 |
| Relenting readers, for my sake! shed tears. | |
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