Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

“ With silver drops the meads yet spread for ruth,
In active games of nimbleness and strength,
Where we did strain, trailèd by swarms of youth,
Our tender limbs that yet shot up in length.
The secret groves which oft we made resound
Of pleasant plaint and of our ladies' praise,
Recording soft what grace each one had found,
What hope of speed, what dread of long delays.
The wild forest, the clothèd holts with green,
With reins availed and swift breathèd horse,
With cry of hounds and merry blasts between,
Where we did chase the fearful hart a force. ”

“ Taketh his flight, where he doth lurk and plain,
His purpose lost, and dare not show his face.
For my lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pain,
Yet from my lord shall not my foot remove:
Sweet is the death that taketh end by love. ”

“ And thus I see among these pleasant things,
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs. ”

“ Was daily wrought, to turn to Britain's gain.
A visage stern, and mild ; where both did grow
Vice to contemn, in virtue to rejoice :
Amid great storms, whom grace assured so,
To live upright, and smile at fortune's choice. ”

“ But by and by the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,
When that I think what grief it is, again,
To live, and lack the thing should rid my pain. ”

“ The happy life be these, I find:
The riches left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;
The equal friend; no grudge nor strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
Without disease the healthy life ”

“ But when I find the lack, Lord how I mourn!
When other lovers in arms across
Rejoice their chief delight,
Drowned in tears to mourn my loss
I stand the bitter night
In my window, where I may see
Before the winds how the clouds flee. ”

“ Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew,
In prison pine with bondage and restraint.
And with remembrance of the greater grief
To banish the less, I find my chief relief. ”

“ That through the groves and launds glides in her flight;
Amid whose side the mortal arrow sticks.
Aeneas now about the walls she leads,
The town prepared and Carthage wealth to show.
Off'ring to speak, amid her voice, she whists.
And when the day gan fail, new feasts she makes ”

“ WYATT resteth here, that quick could never rest :
Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain ;
And virtue sank the deeper in his breast :
Such profit he by envy could obtain. ”

“ Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,
Heaven and earth disturbèd in no thing.
The beast, the air, the birds their song do cease;
The nightès chare the stars about doth bring;
Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less. ”

“ The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes float with new repairèd scale;
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the fliès small ”

“ Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought,
Oft in my face he doth his banner rest. ”

“ O happy dames, that may embrace
The fruit of your delight,
Help to bewail the woeful case
And eke the heavy plight
Of me, that wonted to rejoice
The fortune of my pleasant choice:
Good ladies, help to fill my mourning voice. ”

“ The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale.
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs. ”