Love
Being Scorned and Disdained, He Inveighs against His Lady
From A Poetical Rhapsody (1602), ed. A. H. Bullen (1890–91)
Since just disdain began to rise,
And cry revenge for spiteful wrong;
What erst I praised, I now despise;
And think my love was all too long.
I tread in dirt that scornful pride,
Which in thy looks I have descried;
Thy beauty is a painted skin,
For fools to see their faces in.
Thine eyes, that some as stars esteem,
From whence themselves, they say, take light,
Like to the foolish fire I deem,
That leads men to their death by night.
Thy words and oaths are light as wind;
And yet far lighter is thy mind:
Thy friendship is a broken reed,
That fails thy friends in greatest need.
Codex Note
Anonymous in the Rhapsody; Bullen notes that it is not on Davison's manuscript list of the poems of "A. W.", but thinks it may be his.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies). “Being Scorned and Disdained, He Inveighs against His Lady.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-miscellanies/93/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies). “Being Scorned and Disdained, He Inveighs against His Lady.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-miscellanies/93/.
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