| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The Eighth Decade
Sonnet II. Give period to my matter of complaining | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | GIVE period to my matter of complaining, | |
| Fair Wonder of our time’s admiring eye! | |
| And entertain no more thy long disdaining, | |
| Or give me leave, at last, that I may die! | |
| For who can live, perpetually secluded | 5 |
| From death to life, that loathes her discontent? | |
| Less by some hope seducingly deluded, | |
| Such thoughts aspire to fortunate event; | |
| But I, that now have drawn mal-pleasant breath, | |
| Under the burden of thy cruel hate; | 10 |
| O, I must long, and linger after death; | |
| And yet I dare not give my life her date: | |
| For if I die, and thou repent t’have slain me; | |
| ’Twill grieve me more, than if thou didst disdain me. | | | | |
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