| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 62. When first I ended, then I first began | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1594 (No. 50), and in all later editions.] |
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WHEN first I ended, then I first began; | |
| Then more I travelled further from my rest. | |
| Where most I lost, there most of all I wan; | |
| Pined with hunger, rising from a feast. | |
| Methinks, I fly, yet want I legs to go; | 5 |
| Wise in conceit, in act a very sot. | |
| Ravished with joy amidst a hell of woe; | |
| What most I seem that surest am I not. | |
| I build my hopes, a world above the sky; | |
| Yet with the mole I creep into the earth. | 10 |
| In plenty I am starved with penury; | |
| And yet I surfeit in the greatest dearth. | |
| I have, I want; despair, and yet desire: | |
| Burned in a sea of ice, and drowned amidst a fire. | | | |
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