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HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY


Domenico Beccafumi. Penelope. c1519
Domenico Beccafumi. Penelope. c1519.


COMPLAINT OF THE ABSENCE OF HER LOVER
BEING UPON THE SEA.


O HAPPY dames that may embrace
The fruit of your delight ;
Help to bewail the woful 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.

In ship freight with rememberance
Of thoughts and pleasures past,
He sails that hath in governance
My life while it will last ;
With scalding sighs, for lack of gale,
Furthering his hope, that is his sail,
Toward me, the sweet port of his avail.

Alas !  how oft in dreams I see
Those eyes that were my food ;
Which sometime so delighted me,
That yet they do me good :
Wherewith I wake with his return,
Whose absent flame did make me burn :
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 :
Lo !  what a mariner love hath made of me.

And in green waves when the salt flood
Doth rise by rage of wind ;
A thousand fancies in that mood
Assail my restless mind.
Alas ! now drencheth1 my sweet foe,
That with the spoil of my heart did go,
And left me ; but, alas !  why did he so ?

And when the seas wax calm again,
To chase from me annoy,
My doubtful hope doth cause me plain ;
So dread cuts off my joy.
Thus is my wealth mingled with woe :
And of each thought a doubt doth grow ;
Now he comes !  will he come ?  alas !  no, no!


1 is drowned.



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Manuscript image of the first page Surrey's 'O happy dames' from the Devonshire MS
Manuscript image of the second page Surrey's 'O happy dames' from the Devonshire MS
 
Manuscript images of
BL Add MS 17492, ff. 55r-55v.



Source:
Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of.
The Poetical Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854. 21-22.




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Created by Anniina Jokinen on August 3, 1996. Last updated on January 2, 2019.




 



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