| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diella | | Sonnet XXIV. When leaden-hearted sleep had shut mine eyes | | Richard Linche (fl. 1596–1601) |
| | | WHEN leaden-hearted sleep had shut mine eyes, | |
| and close o’erdrawn their windowlets of light; | |
| Whose wateriness the fire of grief so dries, | |
| that weep they could no longer, sleep they might! | |
| Methought, I sank down to a pool of grief, | 5 |
| and then, methought, such sinking much did please me: | |
| But when I, down was plunged past all relief; | |
| with flood-filled mouth, I called that some would ease me! | |
| Whereat, methought, I saw my dearest Love, | |
| fearing my drowning, reach her hand to mine; | 10 |
| Who pulled so hard to get me up above, | |
| that with the pull, sleep did forsake mine eyen. | |
| But when awaked, I saw ’twas but a dream; | |
| I wished to have slept, and perished in that stream. | | | | |
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