| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The Sixth Decade
Sonnet IX. Love have I followed all too long, nought gaining | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | LOVE have I followed all too long, nought gaining; | |
| And sighed I have in vain to sweet what smarteth, | |
| But from his bow a fiery arrow parteth; | |
| Thinking that I should him resist, not plaining. | |
| But cowardly my heart submiss remaining, | 5 |
| Yields to receive what shaft thy fair eye darteth! | |
| Well do I see, thine eye my bale imparteth; | |
| And that save death, no hope I am detaining. | |
| For what is he can alter fortune’s sliding? | |
| One in his bed consumes his life away, | 10 |
| Other in wars, another in the sea: | |
| The like effects in me have their abiding; | |
| For heavens avowed my fortune should be such, | |
| That I should die by loving far too much. | | | | |
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