Love

Break, Heavy Heart

by Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies) c. 1575–1602

From A Poetical Rhapsody (1602), ed. A. H. Bullen (1890–91)

Love

Break, heavy heart, and rid me of this pain,
This pain that still increaseth day by day:
By day with sighs I spend myself in vain;
In vain by night with tears I waste away.
Away I waste with tears, by night in vain:
Tears, sighs, by night, by day, increase this pain.

Mine eyes no eyes, but fountains of my tears;
My tears no tears, but floods to moist my heart;
My heart no heart, but harbour of my fears;
My fears no fears, but feelings of my smart.
My smart, my fears, my heart, my tears, mine eyes,
Are blind, dried, spent, past, wasted with my cries.

And yet mine eyes, though blind, see cause of grief;
And yet my tears, though dried, run down amain;
And yet my heart, though spent, attends relief;
And yet my fears, though past, increase my pain.
And yet I live, and living feel more smart,
And smarting, cry in vain, Break, heavy heart!

✦ ✦ ✦

Credited to "A. W." in Francis Davison's own manuscript list (Bullen prints the initials in square brackets).

MLA

Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies). “Break, Heavy Heart.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-miscellanies/85/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies). “Break, Heavy Heart.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-miscellanies/85/.

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