Sonnet 24. I hear some say, "This man is not in love!" Michael Drayton (1563-1631). Idea. Seccombe and Arber, comps. 1904. Elizabethan Sonnets

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Idea

Sonnet 24. I hear some say, “This man is not in love!”

Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

[First printed in 1602 (No. 27), and in all later editions.]

I HEAR some say, “This man is not in love!”
“Who! can he love? a likely thing!” they say.
“Read but his Verse, and it will easily prove!”
O, judge not rashly, gentle Sir, I pray!
Because I loosely trifle in this sort,	5
As one that fain his sorrows would beguile:
You now suppose me, all this time, in sport;
And please yourself with this conceit the while.
Ye shallow Censures! sometimes, see ye not,
In greatest perils, some men pleasant be;	10
Where Fame by death is only to be got,
They resolute! So stands the case with me.
Where other men, in depth of Passion cry;
I laugh at Fortune, as in jest to die!