| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XVIII. The rolling wheel that runneth often round | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | THE ROLLING wheel that runneth often round, | |
| The hardest steel, in tract of time doth tear: | |
| And drizzling drops, that often do redound, | |
| The firmest flint doth in continuance wear: | |
| Yet cannot I, with many a dropping tear | 5 |
| And long entreaty, soften her hard heart; | |
| That she will once vouchsafe my plaint to hear, | |
| Or look with pity on my painful smart; | |
| But, when I plead, she bids me play my part; | |
| And, when I weep, she says, “Tears are but water,” | 10 |
| And, when I sigh, she says, “I know the art”; | |
| And, when I wail, she turns her self to laughter. | |
| So do I weep, and wail, and plead in vain, | |
| Whiles she as steel and flint doth still remain. | | | | |
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