Wyatt Poems Flashcards
_____________, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Whoso list to hunt
Yet may I, by no means, my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore,
Fainting I follow. I leave off, therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Whoso list to hunt
As well as I, may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about,
“Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”
Whoso list to hunt
_____________, that sometime did me seek
With naked foot stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.
They flee from me
Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array, after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall…
They flee from me
And she me caught in her arms long and small,
Therewithal sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”
They flee from me
It was no dream, I lay broad waking.
But all is turned, thorough, my gentleness,
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go, of her goodness
And she also to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindely am served,
I fain would know what she hath deserved.
They flee from me
__________, Perform the last
Labor that thou and I shall waste,
And end that I have now begun:
For when this song is sung and past,
My lute be still, for I have done.
My lute, awake!
As to be heard where ear is none,
As lead to grave in marble stone,
My song may pierce her heart as soon.
My lute, awake!
Proud of the spoil that thou hast got
Of simple hearts, thorough Love’s shot,
By whom, unkind, thou hast them won,
Think not he hath his bow forgot,
Although my lute and I have done.
My lute, awake!
Vengeance shall fall on thy disdain
That makest but game on earnest pain.
Think not alone under the sun
Unquit to cause thy lovers plain,
Although my lute and I have done.
My lute, awake!
And then may chance thee to repent
The time that thou hast lost and spent
To cause thy lovers sigh and swoon.
Then shalt thou know beauty but lent,
And wish and want as I have done.
My lute, awake!
___________, for he must sound
Of this or that as liketh me:
For lack of wit the lute is bound
To give such tunes as pleaseth me.
Blame not my lute
Though that perforce he must agree
To sound such tunes as I intend
To sing to them that heareth me.
Then though my songs be somewhat plain,
And toucheth some that use to feign,
__________.
Blame not my lute
Spite asketh spite, and changing change,
And falsèd faith must needs be known;
The fault so great, the case so strange,
Of right it must abroad be blown.
Then since that by thine own desert
My songs do tell how true thou art,
_________.
Blame not my lute
