Sonnet XIX. When Night returns back to his ugly mansion

Richard Linche (fl. 1596–1601)

WHEN Night returns back to his ugly mansion,

and clear-faced Morning makes her bright uprise;

In sorrow’s depth, I murmur out his cantion

(salt tears distilling from my dewy eyes),

“O thou deceitful SOMNUS, god of dreams!

cease to afflict my over-painèd sprite

With vain illusions, and idle themes!

thy spells are false! thou canst not charm aright!

For when, in bed, I think t’embrace my Love

(enchanted by thy magic so to think),

Vain are my thoughts! ’tis empty air, I prove!

that still I wail, till watching make me wink:

And when I wink, I wish I ne’er might wake,

But sleeping, carried to the Stygian lake.”