Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. The Lover Comforteth Himself With The Worthiness of His Love.

HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY

THE LOVER COMFORTETH HIMSELF WITH
THE WORTHINESS OF HIS LOVE.

WHEN raging love with extreme pain
Most cruelly distrains my heart ;
When that my tears, as floods of rain,
Bear witness of my woful smart ;
When sighs have wasted so my breath
That I lie at the point of death :

I call to mind the navy great
That the Greeks brought to Troy town :
And how the boisterous winds did beat
Their ships, and rent their sails adown ;
Till Agamemnon's daughter's blood
Appeas'd the Gods that them withstood.

And how that in those ten years war
Full many a bloody deed was done ;
And many a lord that came full far,
There caught his bane, alas ! too soon ;
And many a good knight overrun,
Before the Greeks had Helen won.

Then think I thus : ' Sith such repair,
So long time war of valiant men,
Was all to win a lady fair,
Shall I not learn to suffer then ?
And think my life well spent to be,
Serving a worthier wight than she ?'

Therefore I never will repent,
But pains contented still endure ;
For like as when, rough winter spent,
The pleasant spring straight draweth in ure ;
So after raging storms of care,
Joyful at length may be my fare.

Source:
Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of.
The Poetical Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854. 20-21.

to Works of Henry Howard