Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

“ Sense’s confounded, soul’s chief overthrow,
Grafted by men, not by the grafter given;
Consuming canker, wasting soul’s chief treasure,
Only to gain a little trifling pleasure.
Happy were man if sin had never been,
Thrice happy now, if sin he would forsake,
But happier far, if for his wicked sin
He would repent, and hearty sorrow make;
Leaving this dross and fleshy delectation,
To gain in heaven a lasting habitation.
There is the place wherein all sorrows die,
Where joy exceeds all joy that ever were ”

“ Were fruitless, bootless, vain and yields but scorn.
I loved her whom all the world admir'd,
I was refused of her that can love none,
And my vain hopes, which far too high aspired
Are dead and buried and forever gone.
Forget my name, since you have scorned my love,
And woman-like, do not too late lament ”

“ For all the tears mine eyes have ever wept
Were now too little had they all been kept.
I see my sins arraigned before my face
I see their number pass the moths in sun.
I see that my continuance in this place
Cannot be long, and all that I have done,
I see before my face the judge hath laid,
At whose stern looks all creatures are afraid.
If he be just my soul condemned is,
And just he is; what then may be expected,
But banishment from everlasting bliss?
To live like cursed Cain, base, vile, abjected ”

“ The rock unseen that ship-wracked souls o’erthrows,
The weeping crocodile that kills with look,
The readiest step to ruin and decay,
Grace’s confounder, and hell’s nearest way.
How many souls do perish by thy guile?
How many men without all fear frequent
Thy deadly haunts, where they in pleasure smile,
Taking no care such dangers to prevent?
But live like Beliels, unbridled or untamed,
Not looking they shall for their faults be blamed. ”

“ So pure a mouth should puddle-water drink.
But since the world is at this woeful pass,
Let love’s submission honour’s wrath appease.
Let not a horse be mated with an ass,
Nor hateful tongue an happy heart disease ”

“ Using shows for to beguile
Those vain hopes that have deceiv'd thee.
Now, thou see'st although too late
Love loves truth, which women hate.
Love no more since she is gone;
She is gone and loves another. ”

“ Without restraint, controlment or respect.
O why should man, that bears the stamp of heaven,
So much abase heaven’s holy will and pleasure?
O, why was sense and reason to him given,
That in his sin cannot contain a measure?
He knows he must account for every sin,
And yet committeth sins that countless been.
This to peruse (dear God) doth kill my soul,
But that thy mercy quickeneth it again;
O hear me, Lord, in bitterness of dole,
That of my sins do prostrate here complain;
And at thy feet with Mary, knock for grace,
Though wanting Marie’s tears to wet my face. ”

“ When practiced sin hath deeply taken root,
The way to penance due is hard to find,
Repentance held a thing of little boot;
For contrite tears, soul’s health, and angels’
Most men account a mere fantastic toy.
Ill-working use, devourer of all grace,
The fretting moth that wasteth soul’s chief bliss,
The sly close thief that lurks in every place,
Filching by piece-meal, till the whole be his ”

“ Grief, despair, hate, and jars that never cease.
The worm of conscience still attendeth on us,
Telling each hour, each instant we shall die,
And that our sins cannot be parted from us,
But where we are, thither they likewise fly ”

“ Who, when he dies, his tomb might be a bush,
Where harmless Robin dwells with gentle thrush.
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”