The Fourth Decade. Sonnet I. Needs must I leave, and yet needs must I love!

Henry Constable (1562–1613)

NEEDS must I leave, and yet needs must I love!

In vain my wit doth tell in verse my woe:

Despair in me, disdain in thee, doth show

How by my wit I do my folly prove.

All this; my heart from love can never move.

Love is not in my heart. No, Lady! No,

My heart is love itself. Till I forego

My heart, I never can my love remove.

How can I then leave love? I do intend

Not to crave grace, but yet to wish it still;

Not to praise thee, but Beauty to commend:

And so, by Beauty’s praise, praise thee I will!

For as my heart is Love, love not in me:

So Beauty thou, beauty is not in thee!