THE FOURTH DECADE

I

_Of the end and death of his love_

Needs must I leave and yet needs must I love;

In vain my wit doth tell in verse my woe;

Despair in me, disdain in thee, doth show

How by my wit I do my folly prove.

All this my heart from love can never move.

Love is not in my heart. No, Lady, no,

My heart is love itself. Till I forego

My heart I never can my love remove.

How can I then leave love? I do intend

Not to crave grace, but yet to wish it still;

Not to praise thee, but beauty to commend;

And so, by beauty's praise, praise thee I will;

For as my heart is love, love not in me,

So beauty thou, beauty is not in thee.

Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles: Delia - Diana · 第 103 / 146 题