| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Ode 19. Why should I weep in vain, poor and remedyless? | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | WHY should I weep in vain, poor and remedyless? | |
| Why should I make complaint to the deaf wilderness? | |
| Why should I sigh for ease? Sighs, they breed malady! | |
| Why should I groan in heart? Groans, they bring misery! | |
| Why should tears, plaints, and sighs, mingled with heavy groans, | 5 |
| Practise their cruelty, whiles I complain to stones? | |
| O what a cruel heart, with such a tyranny, | |
| Hardly she practiseth, in grief’s extremity? | |
| Such to make conquered whom she would have depressed, | |
| Such a man to disease, whom she would have oppressed. | 10 |
| O but, PARTHENOPHE! turn, and be pitiful! | |
| Cruelty, beauty stains! Thou, Sweet! art beautiful! | |
| If that I made offence, my love is all the fault | |
| Which thou can charge me with, then do not make assault | |
| With such extremities, for my kind hearty love! | 15 |
| But for love’s pity sake, from me, thy frowns remove! | |
| So shall thou make me blest! So shall my sorrows cease! | |
| So shall I live at ease! So shall my joys acrease! | |
| So shall tears, plaints, and sighs, mingled with heavy groans, | |
| Weary the rocks no more! nor lament to the stones! | 20 | | | |
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