Love
Alas the greiff and dedly wofull smert
From The Poems of Sir Thomas Wiat (ed. A. K. Foxwell, 1913)
Alas the greiff and dedly wofull smert :
The carefull chaunce shapen afore my shert;
The sorrowfull teares, the sighes hote as fyer.
That cruell love hath long soked from myn hert.
And for reward of our greate desire
Disdaynful dowblenes have I for my hier.
O lost servis, O payn ill rewarded :
O pitifull hert with payn enlarged :
O faithful! mynde, too sodenly assented :
Retourn, alas sithens thou are not regarded :
Too great a prouf of true faith presented,
Causeth by right suche faith to be repented.
O cruell causer of undeserved chaunge,
By greet desire unconstantly to raunge :
Is this your waye for prouf of stedfastnes ?
(Perdy you knowe the thing was not so straunge
By former prouff) too muche my faithfulnes;
What nedeth then suche coloured dowblenes?
I have wailed thus, weping in nyghtly payn :
In sobbes and sighes, Alas ! and all in vayn :
In inward plaint and hertes wofull torment :
And yet, alas, lo crueltie and disdayn
Have set at noght a faithfull true intent,
And price hath privilege trouth to prevent.
But though I sterve : and to my deth still morne :
And pece mele in peces though I be torn :
And though I dye yelding my weried gooste
Shall never thing again make me retorn.
I qwite the entreprise of that that I have lost.
To whome so ever lust for to proffer moost.
Cite this poem
MLA
Wyatt, Thomas. “Alas the greiff and dedly wofull smert.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wyatt/74/.
Chicago
Wyatt, Thomas. “Alas the greiff and dedly wofull smert.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wyatt/74/.
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