Elizabethan Poetry: An Anthology

by Bob Blaisdell (Editor)

Overview

The relative peace and prosperity of the Elizabethan age (1558–1603) fostered the growth of one of the most fruitful eras in literary history. Lyric poetry, prose, and drama flourished in sixteenth-century England in works that blended medieval traditions with Renaissance optimism.
This anthology celebrates the wit and imaginative creativity of the Elizabethan poets with a generous selection of their graceful and sophisticated verse. Highlights include sonnets from Astrophel and Stella, written by Sir Philip Sidney — a scholar, poet, critic, courtier, diplomat, soldier, and ideal English Renaissance man; poems by Edmund Spenser, whose works combined romance with allegory, adventure, and morality; and sonnets by William Shakespeare, whose towering poetic genius transcends the ages. Other celebrated contributors include John Donne ("Go, and catch a fallen star"), Ben Jonson ("Drink to me only with thine eyes"), and Christopher Marlowe ("The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"). The poetry of lesser-known figures such as Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, and Fulke Greville appears here, along with verses by individuals better known in other fields — Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, and Walter Raleigh — whose poems offer valuable insights into the spirit of the age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486437941
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	01/17/2005
Series:	Dover Thrift Editions Series
Edition description:	Dover Thrift Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.32(w) x 8.22(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Bob Blaisdell is the editor of several successful Dover anthologies, including Elizabethan Poetry, Famous Documents and Speeches of the Civil War, and The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln.

Read an Excerpt

Elizabethan Poetry

An Anthology

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By Bob Blaisdell, John Green

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 2005 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-11363-0

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CHAPTER 1

ANONYMOUS (1595–1608)

Most of the poems from this section were set to music as madrigals in the late 1580s and subsequently published in one of the nearly one hundred songbooks that appeared through the early 1600s. (Love was usually the topic of madrigals, which were always sung unaccompanied by instruments; the majority of the other songs were accompanied by lute.) While the madrigal form developed in Italy, English composers took it up and probably wrote more than musicians anywhere else, the most notable being William Byrd, Thomas Morley, John Dowland and Thomas Weekles. Any titles to the poems seem to have been added by the original or subsequent editors.

* * *

    Now is the month of maying,
    When merry lads are playing
    Each with his bonny lass
    Upon the greeny grass.

    The Spring, clad all in gladness,
    Doth laugh at Winter's sadness,
    And to the bagpipe's sound
    The nymphs tread out their ground.

    Fie then! why sit we musing,
    Youth's sweet delight refusing?
    Say, dainty nymphs, and speak,
    Shall we play barley-break?


    A Sonnet in the Grace of Wit, of Tongue, of Face

    Her face, her tongue, her wit, so fair, so sweet, so sharp,
    First bent, then drew, now hit, mine eye, mine ear, my heart:
    Mine eye, mine ear, my heart, to like, to learn, to love,
    Her face, her tongue, her wit, doth lead, doth teach, doth move.
    Her face, her tongue, her wit, with beams, with sound, with art,
    Doth blind, doth charm, doth rule, mine eye, mine ear, my heart.
    Mine eye, mine ear, my heart, with life, with hope, with skill,
    Her face, her tongue, her wit, doth feed, doth feast, doth fill.
    Oh face, oh tongue, oh wit, with frowns, with checks, with smart,
    Wring not, vex not, wound not, mine eye, mine ear, my heart:
    This eye, this ear, this heart, shall 'join, shall bind, shall swear,
    Your face, your tongue, your wit, to serve, to love, to fear.


    Love's a Bee, and Bees Have Stings

    Once I thought, but falsely thought
    Cupid all delight had brought,
    And that love had been a treasure,
    And a palace full of pleasure,
    But alas! too soon I prove,
    Nothing is so sour as love;
    That for sorrow my muse sings,
    Love's a bee, and bees have stings.

    When I thought I had obtained
    That dear solace, which if gained
    Should have caused all joy to spring,
    Viewed, I found it no such thing:
    But instead of sweet desires,
    Found a rose hemmed in with briars;
    That for sorrow my muse sings,
    Love's a bee, and bees have stings.

    Wonted pleasant life adieu,
    Love hath changed thee for a new:
    New indeed, and sour I prove it,
    Yet I cannot choose but love it;
    And as if it were delight,
    I pursue it day and night;
    That with sorrow my muse sings,
    I love bees, though bees have stings.


    Posies

    Love resisted is a child;
    Suffered, is a tiger wild.

    The scourge of heaven and earth, hell, sea and land,
    Is scourged and mastered by a human hand.

    My heart's heart likes my heart, and I again
    Like my heart's heart; so both content remain.

    Mars and Cupid differ far,
    Love cannot agree with war;
    And till Mars and Love agree,
    Look not, Love, to conquer me.

    If Fortune's hand be not a stop,
    I will attain the highest top;
    The which if Fortune do deny,
    Fortune is to blame, not I.


* * *

    Except I love, I cannot have delight,
    It is a care that doth to life belong;
    For why I hold that life in great despite
    That hath not soür mixed with sweet among.
    And though the torments which I feel be strong,
    Yet had I rather thus for to remain
    Than laugh, and live, not feeling lover's pain.


* * *

    April is in my mistress' face,
    And July in her eyes hath place,
    Within her bosom is September,
    But in her heart a cold December.


* * *

    My Love in her attire doth shew her wit,
    It doth so well become her:
    For every season she hath dressings fit,
    For Winter, Spring, and Summer.
    No beauty she doth miss,
    When all her robes are on:
    But Beauty's self she is,
    When all her robes are gone.


* * *

    Fie on this feigning!
    Is love without desire?
    Heat still remaining,
    And yet no spark of fire?
    Thou art untrue, nor wert with Fancy moved!
    For Desire hath power on all that ever loved!

    Sow some relenting!
    Or grant thou dost not love!
    Two hearts consenting,
    Shall they no comforts prove?
    Yield! or confess that Love is without Pleasure;
    And that women's bounties rob men of their treasure!

    Truth is not placed
    In words and forcèd smiles!
    Love is not graced
    With that which still beguiles!
    Love, or dislike! yield fire, or give no fuel!
    So mayest thou prove kind; or, at the least less, cruel!


* * *

    Come, sirrah Jack, ho!
    Fill some tobacco.
    Bring a wire
    And some fire!
    Haste away,
    Quick I say!
    Do not stay!
    Shun delay!
    For I drank none good to-day.

    I swear that this tobacco
    It's perfect Trinidado.
    By the Mass
    Never was
    Better gear
    Than is here.
    By the rood
    For the blood
    It is very very good.

    Fill the pipe once more,
    My brains dance trenchmore.
    It is heady,
    I am giddy.
    Head and brains,
    Back and reins,
    Joints and veins
    From all pains
    It doth well purge and make clean.
    For those that do condemn it,
    Or such as not commend it,
    Never were so wise to learn
    Good tobacco to discern;
    Let them go
    Pluck a crow,
    And not know,
    As I do,
    The sweet of Trinidado.


* * *

    In love with you, I all things else do hate;
    I hate the Sun, that shows me not your face!
    I hate my Stars, that make my fault my fate.
    Not having you! I hate both Time and Place.
    I hate Opinion, for her nice respects,
    The chiefest hinderer of my dear delight;
    I hate Occasion, for his lame defects;
    I hate that Day worse than the blackest night,
    Whose progress ends, and brings me not to you!
    I hate the Night, because her sable wings
    Aids not love, but hides you from my view.
    I hate my Life, and hate all other things;
    And Death I hate, and yet I know not why,
    But that, because you live, I would not die.


* * *

    Crabbed age and youth
    Cannot live together;
    Youth is full of pleasance,
    Age is full of care:
    Youth like summer morn,
    Age like winter weather;
    Youth like summer brave,
    Age like winter bare.
    Youth is full of sport,
    Age's breath is short,
    Youth is nimble, age is lame:
    Youth is hot and bold,
    Age is weak and cold;
    Youth is wild, and age is tame.
    Age, I do abhor thee;
    Youth, I do adore thee;
    O, my love, my love is young:
    Age, I do defy thee;
    O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,
    For methinks thou stay'st too long.


* * *
    If fathers knew but how to leave
    Their children wit, as they do wealth;
    And could constrain them to receive
    That physic which brings perfect health,
    The world would not admiring stand
    A woman's face and woman's hand.

    Women confess they must obey;
    We men will needs be servants still.
    We kiss their hands, and what they say
    We must commend be 't never so ill.
    Thus we like fools admiring stand
    Her pretty foot and pretty hand.

    We blame their pride, which we increase
    By making mountains of a mouse.
    We praise because we know we please.
    Poor women are too credulous
    To think that we admiring stand
    Or foot, or face, or foolish hand.


* * *

    O sleep, fond Fancy, sleep, my head thou tirest
    With false delight of that which thou desirest.
    Sleep, sleep, I say, and leave my thoughts molesting,
    Thy master's head hath need of sleep and resting.


* * *

    If I could shut the gate against my thoughts,
    And keep out sorrow from this room within,
    Or memory could cancel all the notes
    Of my misdeeds, and I unthink the sin,
    How free, how clear, how clean my mind should lie,
    Discharged of such a loathsome company.

    Or were there other rooms without my heart,
    That did not to my conscience join so near,
    Where I might lodge the thoughts of sin apart,
    That I might not their clamorous crying hear,
    What peace, what joy, what ease should I possess,
    Freed from their horrors that my soul oppress.

    But, O my Saviour, who my refuge art,
    Let thy dear mercies stand 'twixt them and me,
    And be the wall to separate my heart,
    So that I may at length repose me free,
    That peace and joy and rest may be within,
    And I remain divided from my sin.


* * *

    In midst of woods or pleasant grove
    Where all sweet birds do sing,
    Methought I heard so rare a sound,
    Which made the heavens to ring.
    The charm was good, the noise full sweet,
    Each bird did play his part;
    And I admired to hear the same;
    Joy sprung into my heart.

    The blackbird made the sweetest sound,
    Whose tunes did far excel,
    Full pleasantly and most profound
    Was all things placed well.
    Thy pretty tunes, mine own sweet bird,
    Done with so good a grace,
    Extols thy name, prefers the same
    Abroad in every place.

    Thy music grave, bedecked well
    With sundry points of skill,
    Bewrays thy knowledge excellent,
    Engrafted in thy will.
    My tongue shall speak, my pen shall write,
    In praise of thee to tell.
    The sweetest bird that ever was,
    In friendly sort, farewell.


    Life and Death

    The longer life, the more offence;
    The more offence, the greater pain;
    The greater pain, the less defence;
    The less defence, the lesser gain;
    The loss of gain long ill doth try,
    Wherefore, come Death, and let me die.

    The shorter life, less count I find;
    The less account, the sooner made;
    The account soon made, the merrier mind;
    The merrier mind doth thought evade;
    Short life in truth this thing doth try,
    Wherefore, come Death, and let me die.

    Come, gentle Death, the ebb of care;
    The ebb of care, the flood of life;
    The flood of life, the joyful fare;
    The joyful fare, the end of strife;
    The end of strife, that thing wish I,
    Wherefore, come Death, and let me die.

CHAPTER 2

ANNE ASKEW (1521–1546)

Anne Askew was imprisoned for her Protestantism and executed for heresy by Henry VIII's bishops.

    The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate

    Like as the armed knight
    Appointed to the field,
    With this world will I fight
    And Faith shall be my shield.

    Faith is that weapon strong
    Which will not fail at need.
    My foes, therefore, among
    Therewith will I proceed.

    As it is had in strength
    And force of Christés way,
    It will prevail at length
    Though all the devils say nay.

    Faith in the fathers old
    Obtained righteousness,
    Which make me very bold
    To fear no world's distress.

    I now rejoice in heart
    And Hope bid me do so,
    For Christ will take my part
    And ease me of my woe.

    Thou say'st, Lord, who so knock,
    To them wilt thou attend.
    Undo, therefore, the lock
    And thy strong power send.

    More en'mies now I have
    Than hairs upon my head.
    Let them not me deprave
    But fight thou in my stead.

    On thee my care I cast.
    For all their cruel spite,
    I set not by their haste,
    For thou art my delight.

    I am not she that list
    My anchor to let fall,
    For every drizzling mist
    My ship substantial.

    Not oft use I to write
    In prose nor yet in rhyme,
    Yet will I show one sight
    That I saw in my time.

    I saw a royal throne
    Where Justice should have sit,
    But in her stead was one
    Of moody, cruel wit.

    Absorbed was rightwisness
    As of the raging flood,
    Satan in his excess
    Sucked up the guiltless blood.

    Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
    When Thou shalt judge us all
    Hard is it to record
    On these men what will fall.

    Yet, Lord, I thee desire
    For that they do to me
    Let them not taste the hire
    Of their iniquity.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Elizabethan Poetry by Bob Blaisdell, John Green. Copyright © 2005 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Anonymous (1595-1608)
"Now is the month of maying"
A Sonnet in the Grace of Wit, of Tongue, of Face
Love's a Bee, and Bees Have Stings
Posies
"Except I love, I cannot have delight"
"April is in my mistress' face"
"My Love in her attire doth shew her wit"
"Fie on this feigning!"
"Come, sirrah Jack, ho!"
"In love with you, I all things else do hate"
"Crabbed age and youth"
"If fathers knew but how to leave"
"O sleep, fond Fancy, sleep, my head thou tirest"
"If I could shut the gate against my thoughts"
"In midst of woods or pleasant grove"
Life and Death
Anne Askew (1521-1546)
The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate
Francis Bacon (1521-1546)
The Life of Man
Barnabe Barnes (c. 1569-1609)
"A blast of wind, a momentary breath"
Richard Barnfield (1574-1627)
The Unknown Shepherd's Complaint
Another of the Same Shepherd's
Thomas Bastard (1566-1618)
"Methinks 'tis pretty sport to hear a child"
Nicholas Breton (c. 1545-c. 1626)
"I would thou wert not fair, or I were wise"
"Say that I should say I love ye"
An Odd Conceit
A Farewell to Love
"Tell me, tell me pretty muse"
"In the merry month of May"
A Sweet Lullaby
Thomas Campion (1567-1620)
"When to her lute Corinna sings"
"My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love"
"I care not for those ladies that must be wooed and prayed"
Cherry-Ripe
"Thou art not fair, for all thy red and white"
Vobiscum est Iope
"So quick, so hot, so mad is thy fond suit"
"The man of life upright"
"Though you are young and I am old"
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (1520-1598)
To Mistress Anne Cecil, upon making her a New Year's gift
George Chapman (1559-1634)
To the Reader of Homer's Iliad
Robert Chester (c. 1566-c. 1640)
The Phoenix, Her Song
Henry Constable (1562-1613)
Diaphenia
Diana
"My lady's presence makes the roses red"
"Ready to seek out death in my disgrace"
"Ay me, poor wretch, my prayer is turned to sin"
"I do not now complain of my disgrace"
"To live in hell, and heaven to behold"
Anne Dacres, Countess of Arundel (c. 1558-1630)
"In sad and ashy weeds I sigh"
Samuel Daniel (1562-1619)
To Delia
"Unto the boundless ocean of they beauty"
"Fair is my love, and cruel as she's fair"
"If this be love, to draw a weary breath"
"Oft do I marvel, whether Delia's eyes"
"Care-charmer sleep, son of the sable night"
"Let others sing of knights and paladins"
"Unhappy pen, and ill-accepted lines"
"Now each creature joys the other"
"Love is a sickness full of woes"
To His Reader
John Davies (1569-1626)
The Author's Dedication: To Queen Elizabeth
Hymn VI: To the Nightingale
Thomas Dekker (c. 1570-1632)
Lullaby
O Sweet Content
"Virtue smiles: cry holiday"
Thomas Deloney (c. 1543-c. 1607)
"Farewell, false Love, the oracle of lies"
Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex (1566-1601)
"Change thy mind since she doth change"
Essex's Last Voyage to the Haven of Happiness
John Donne (1572-1631)
The Anniversary
The Apparition
The Canonization
The Good Morrow
The Relic
Song ("Go, and catch a falling star")
Song ("Sweetest love, I do not go")
The Sun Rising
A Valediction: of My Name, in the Window
To His Mistress Going to Bed
Satire I ("Away thou fondling motley humorist")
Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
Sonnets to Idea
I. ("Read here (sweet maid) the story of my woe")
VI. ("How many paltry, foolish, painted things")
XX. ("An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still")
LXI. ("Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part")
XLI. ("Dear, why should you command me to my rest")
Edward Dyer (c. 1540-1607)
"My mind to me a kingdom is"
"I joy not in no earthly bliss"
I Would and Would Not
Richard Edwards (c. 1523-1566)
Amantium Irae Amoris Redintegratio
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Importune me no more
A Ditty
Charles Fitzgeoffrey (c. 1575-1638)
"Look how the industrious bee in fragrant May"
Giles Fitzgeoffrey (c. 1575-1638)
Licia, the Wise, Kind, Virtuous, and Fair
I. "Bright matchless star, the honor of the sky"
VI. "My love amazed did blush herself to see"
XLVII. "Like Memnon's Rock, touched with the rising sun"
John Fletcher (1579-1625)
Invocation to Sleep
George Gascoigne (c. 1525-1577)
"And if I did, what then"
The Lullaby of a Lover
The Looks of a Lover Enamoured
Dan Bartholmew, His Second Triumph
A Challenge to Beauty
Gascoigne's Arraignment at Beauty's Bar
Humfrey Gifford (date unknown)
For Soldiers
Barnabe Googe (1540-1594)
To Alexander Neville
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
A Posy
Of Money
Robert Greene (c. 1560-1592)
In Love's Dispraise
Weep Not, My Wanton
The Shepherd's Wife's Song
Time
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1544-1628)
"Farewell, sweet boy, complain not of my truth"
Cælica III ("More than most fair, full of that heavenly fire")
Cælica IV ("You little stars that live in skies")
Cælica VII ("The world, that all things contains, is ever moving")
Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney
Bartholomew Griffin (dates unknown)
Sonnets to Fidessa
IV. "Did you sometimes three German brethren see"
XV. "Care-charmer sleep! Sweet ease in restless misery!"
XLII. "When never-speaking silence proves a wonder"
LXII. "Most true that I must fair Fidessa love"
John Harrington (1561-1612)
The Author to His Wife
The Author to His Wife, of a Woman's Eloquence
To His Wife for Striking Her Dog
Comparison of the Sonnet and the Epigram
Of the Wars in Ireland
Edward Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648)
To His Watch When He Could Not Sleep
Upon Combing Her Hair
Kissing
Thomas Heywood (c. 1573-1641)
Good Morrow
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
Vow to Love Faithfully Howsoever He Be Rewarded
The Lover Comforteth Himself with the Worthiness of His Love
A Complaint by Night of the Lover Not Beloved
Ben Jonson (c. 1573-1637)
To My Book
To My Bookseller
On My First Daughter
On My First Son
To Fool, or Knave
To John Donne
On Play-Wright
Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.
Song: That Women Are but Men's Shadows
Song: To Celia ("Drink to me only with thine eyes")
A Lover's Inventory
To the Memory of My Beloved Master, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us
Thomas Lodge (c. 1558-1625)
Rosalynde's Description
Rosalynde's Madrigal
Montanus' Sonnet
Praise of Rosalynde
The Lover's Theme
"My bonny lass! Thine eye"
"For pity, pretty eyes, surcease"
John Lyly (c. 1554-1606)
Song ("Herbs, words, and stones")
Sapho's Song
Vulcan's Song, in Making of the Arrows
Cards and Kisses
This Song of the Fisherman
Christopher Marlow (1564-1593)
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Ovid's Elegia I, Book I
Ovid's Elegia V, Book I
Ovid's Elegia IV, Book II
John Marston (c. 1575-1634)
In Lectores prorsus indignos
Thomas Middleton (1580-1627)
A Moral: Lucifer Ascending, as Prologue to His Own Play
Anthony Munday (1553-1633)
The Song Which Mistress Ursula Sung to Her Lute, to Zelauto
Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)
"Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant king"
"Autumn hath all the summer's fruitful treasure"
"Adieu, farewell earth's bliss"
George Peele (1566-1596)
"What thing is love for (well I wot) love is a thing"
Song of Bethsabe Bathing
"His golden locks Time hath to silver turned"
A Farewell to the Famous and Fortunate Generals of Our English Forces, Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake, Knights
Walter Raleigh (c. 1552-1618)
To His Son
Farewell to the Court
Epitaph
Her Reply, or Answer to Marlowe
"What is our life? The play of passion"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Song ("When icicles hang by the wall")
Song ("Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more")
Song ("When that I was and a little tiny boy")
Song ("Blow, blow, thou winter-wind")
Song ("Under the green-wood tree")
Song ("Take, O take those lips away")
Song ("Fear no more the heat o' th' sun")
Song ("Full fathom five thy father lies")
Sonnet 3: "Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest"
Sonnet 15: "When I consider every thing that grows"
Sonnet 17: "Who will believe my verse in time to come"
Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"
Sonnet 29: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes"
Sonnet 30: "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought"
Sonnet 55: "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments"
Sonnet 64: "When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd"
Sonnet 66: "Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry"
Sonnet 73: "That time of year thou may'st in me behold"
Sonnet 91: "Some glory in their birth, some in their skill"
Sonnet 116: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"
Sonnet 130: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"
Sonnet 138: "When my love swears that she is made of truth"
Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621)
Psalm 63, ("God, the God where all my forces lie")
Psalm 139 ("O Lord, in me there lieth nought")
"If ever hapless woman had a cause"
"Alas, with what tormenting fire"
Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
The Bargain
"In vain, mine eyes, you labor to amend"
"My mistress lours, and saith I do not love"
"Ring out your bells, let mourning shewes be spread"
Astrophel and Stella
Sonnet 1 ("Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show")
Sonnet 7 ("When Nature made her chief work, Stella's eyes")
Sonnet 34 ("Come, let me write, and to what end? To ease")
Sonnet 43 ("Fair eyes, sweet lips, dear heart, that foolish I")
Sonnet 49 ("I on my horse, and Love on me, doth try")
Sonnet 54 ("Because I breathe not love to ev'ry one")
Sonnet 59 ("Dear! Why make you more of a dog than me?")
Sonnet 67 ("Hope! Art thou true, or dost thou flatter me?")
Sonnet 70 ("My Muse may well grudge at my heav'nly joy")
Sonnet 80 ("Sweet swelling lip, well may'st thou swell in pride")
William Smith (dates unknown)
Sonnet to Chloris XVIII
Robert Southwell (1561-1595)
The Image of Death
Times Go By Turns
Loss in Delay
The Burning Babe
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599)
Iambicum Trimetrum
"Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a brere"
"What guile is this, that those her golden tresses"
"Fresh Spring, the herald of love's mighty king"
"One day I wrote her name upon the strand"
"Lacking my love, I go from place to place"
Joshua Sylvester (1563-1618)
"Were I as base as is the lowly plain"
Chidiock Tichborne (c. 1558-1586)
"My prime of youth is but a frost of cares"
Robert Tofte (d. 1620)
Love's Labour Lost
George Turberville (1544-c. 1597)
The Lover to His Lady
The Lover Whose Mistress Feared a Mouse, Declareth That He Would Become a Cat, If He Might Have His Desire
To His Love, That Controlled His Dog for Fawning on Her
Thomas Vaux (1510-1556)
The Aged Lover Renounceth Love
No Pleasure without Some Pain
In His Extreme Sickness
Bethinking Himself of His End, Writeth Thus
Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604)
"If women could be fair and never fond"
"Were I as a king I might command content"
A. W. (dates unknown)
Dispraise of Love, and Lover's Follies
Hopeless Desire Soon Withers and Dies
The Lowest Trees Have Tops
Her Outward Gesture Deceiving His Inward Hope
Thomas Watson (c. 1557-1592)
A Dialogue between a Lover, Death, and Love
Isabella Whitney (c. 1540-post-1580)
To Her Unconstant Lover
The Admonition by the Author to All Young Gentlewomen, and to All Other Maids, Being In Love
Henry Wotton (1568-1639)
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
The Lover Compareth His State to a Ship in Perilous Storm Tossed on the Sea
The Appeal: An earnest Suit to His Unkind Mistress, Not to Forsake Him
The Lover Showeth How He Is Forsaken of Such as He Sometime Enjoyed
The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love
How Unpossible It Is to Find Quiet in Love
He Complaineth to His Heart That, Having Once Recovered His Freedom, He Had Again Become Thrall to Love

Alphabetical List of Authors, Titles, and First Lines