| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 40. My heart the Anvil where my thoughts do beat | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1594 (No. 44), and in all later editions.] |
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MY heart the Anvil where my thoughts do beat; | |
| My words the Hammers fashioning my Desire; | |
| My breast the Forge including all the heat, | |
| Love is the Fuel which maintains the fire. | |
| My sighs the Bellows which the flame increaseth, | 5 |
| Filling mine ears with noise and nightly groaning. | |
| Toiling with pain, my labour never ceaseth; | |
| In grievous Passions, my woes still bemoaning. | |
| My eyes with tears against the fire striving, | |
| Whose scorching glede, my heart to cinders turneth: | 10 |
| But with those drops, the flame again reviving | |
| Still more and more it, to my torment burneth. | |
| With SISYPHUS thus do I roll the stone, | |
| And turn the wheel with damnèd IXION. | | | |
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