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| DEAR Sorrow! Give me leave to breathe a while! | |
| A little leave, to take a longer breath! | |
| Whose easy passage, still, thou dost beguile, | |
| Choked up with sighs, proclaimers of my death. | |
| O let the tears of ever-thirsty eyes | 5 |
| Return back to the channels of mine heart! | |
| They, to my sight be vowèd enemies | |
| And made a traitorous league not to depart; | |
| Under the colour of tormenting those | |
| Which were first causers of mine heart’s distress. | 10 |
| And closely with mine heart, by guile, did close | |
| Through blinding them, to make my torment less; | |
| O let those fearful thoughts, which still oppress me, | |
| Turn to the dungeon of my troubled brain! | |
| Despair t’ accompany! which doth possess me, | 15 |
| And with his venom poisoneth every vein. | |
| Ugly Despair! who, with black force, assaults | |
| Me vanquished with conceit, and makes me dwell | |
| With Horror, matched in Melancholy’s vaults! | |
| Where I lie burning in my Fancies’ Hell. | 20 |
| O thou, dread Ruler of my sorrows’ rage! | |
| Of thee! and none but thee, I beg remorse! | |
| With thy sweet breath, thou may my sighs assuage! | |
| And make my sorrows’ fountains stay their course, | |
| And banish black Despair! Then help me, now! | 25 |
| Or know, Death can do this, as well as thou! | |
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