Love

My hert I gave the not to do it payn

by Sir Thomas Wyatt 1503–1542

From The Poems of Sir Thomas Wiat (ed. A. K. Foxwell, 1913)

Love

My hert I gave the not to do it payn,
But to preserve it was to the taken :
I served the not to be forsaken,
But that I should be rewarded again :

I was content thy servaunt to remayn,
But not to be payed under this fasshion :
Nowe syns in the is none othr reason,
Displease the not if that I do refrain :

Unsaciat of my woo and thy desir :
Assured be craft to excuse thy fault.
But syns it please the to fain a default

Ffarewell I say, parting from the fyer.
For he that belevith bering in hand,
Ploweth in water and sojweth in the sand.

MLA

Wyatt, Thomas. “My hert I gave the not to do it payn.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wyatt/21/.

Chicago

Wyatt, Thomas. “My hert I gave the not to do it payn.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wyatt/21/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Sir Thomas Wyatt