Michael Drayton. Idea. Sonnet XIX.

FROM

I d e a.

by Michael Drayton

XIX.

To Humor

YOU cannot love, my pretty heart, and why ?
There was a time you told me that you would ;
But now again you will the same deny,
If it might please you, would to God you could !
What, will you hate ? Nay, that you will not, neither.
Nor love nor hate, how then ? What will you do ?
What, will you keep a mean then betwixt either,
Or will you love me and yet hate me too ?
Yet serves not this. What next ? What other shift ?
You will, and will not ; what a coil is here !
I see your craft, now I perceive your drift,
And all this while I was mistaken there :
Your love and hate is this, I now do prove you,
You love in hate, by hate to make me love you.

Source:
Drayton, Michael. Idea.
Daniel's Delia and Drayton's Idea. Arundell Esdaile, Ed.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1908. 86.

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