Sonnet I: When I sit down to contemplate my case

When I sit down to contemplate my case,
And to review the stages of the way,
I find from where my steps went first astray,
They might have lost me in a darker maze:
But when these memories pass, around I gaze,
And wonder whence could come a doom so dark;
I know I die, and suffer more to mark
My care conclude with my concluding race.
Yes, die I will, and so my spirit free
From her who well will know to' undo and slay me
If so she wishes,--such her wish will be,
For since my own will does to death betray me,
Hers, which is less my friend, must compass too
My death--if not, what is it she will do?