| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 52. What dost thou mean, to cheat me of my heart? | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1619.]
WHAT dost thou mean, to cheat me of my heart? | |
| To take all mine, and give me none again? | |
| Or have thine eyes such magic, or that Art | |
| That what they get, they ever do retain? | |
| Play not the Tyrant, but take some remorse! | 5 |
| Rebate thy spleen, if but for pity’s sake! | |
| Or cruel, if thou can’st not, let us scorse! | |
| And for one piece of thine, my whole heart take! | |
| But what of pity, do I speak to thee! | |
| Whose breast is proof against complaint or prayer: | 10 |
| Or can I think what my reward shall be | |
| From that proud Beauty, which was my betrayer! | |
| What talk I of a heart, when thou hast none! | |
| Or if thou hast, it is a flinty one. | | | | |
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