When I was otherwise than now I am

When I was otherwise than now I am,
I loved more but skilled not so much
Fair words and smiles could have contented then,
My simple age and ignorance was such:
But at the length experience made me wonder
That hearts and tongues did lodge so far asunder.

As watermen which on the Thames do row,
Look to the east but west keeps on the way;
My sovereign sweet her count'nance settled so,
To feed my hope while she her snares might lay:
And when she saw that I was in her danger,
Good God, how soon she proved then a ranger!

I could not choose but laugh, although too late,
To see great craft decypher'd in a toy;
I love her still, but such conditions hate
Which so profanes my paradise of joy.
Love whets the wits, whose pain is but a pleasure;
A toy, by fits to play withal at leisure.