| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The Seventh Decade
Sonnet IX. Wilt thou be still unkind, and kill me so? | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | WILT thou be still unkind, and kill me so? | |
| Whose humbled vows, with sorrowful appeal, | |
| Do still persist; and did, so long ago, | |
| Intreat for pity, with so pure a zeal? | |
| Suffice the world shall, for the world can say | 5 |
| How much thy power hath power, and what it can; | |
| Never was victor-hand yet moved to slay | |
| The rendered captive, or the yielding man. | |
| Then, O, why should thy woman-thought impose | |
| Death and disdain on him, that yields his breath; | 10 |
| To free his soul from discontent and woes, | |
| And humble sacrifice to a certain death? | |
| O since the world knows, what the power can do: | |
| What were’t for thee, to save and love me too? | | | | |
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