Sonnet XII. The tablet of my heavy fortunes here

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

[Not reprinted in Delia, Daniel’s authorised collection, 1592–4.]

THE TABLET of my heavy fortunes here

Upon thine altar, Paphian Power! I place.

The grievous shipwrack of my travels dear

In bulged bark, all perished in disgrace.

That traitor LOVE! was pilot to my woe;

My sails were Hope, spread with my Sighs of Grief;

The twin lights which my hapless course did show

Hard by th’inconstant sands of false relief,

Were two bright stars which led my view apart.

A SIREN’s voice allured me come so near

To perish on the marble of her heart:

A danger which my soul did never fear.

Lo, thus he fares that trusts a calm too much

And thus fare I whose credit hath been such.