RPO -- Henry Howard, earl of Surrey : Alas! so all Things now do Hold their Peace

Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1517?-1547)

Alas! so all Things now do Hold their Peace

1Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,

2Heaven and earth disturbed in nothing.

3The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,

4The night{:e}s chare the stars about doth bring.

5Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less:

6So am not I, whom love, alas, doth wring,

7Bringing before my face the great increase

8Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing

9In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.

10For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring,

11But by and by the cause of my disease

12Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,

13When that I think what grief it is again

14To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

Notes

1] Tottel's title: "A complaint by night of the louer not beloued." An adaptation of Petrarch's 145th (113th) sonnet.

4] chare: perhaps from charet: chariot, car; but derived from Petrarch's "carro": the Great Bear.

11] disease: dis-ease, discomfort.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Nott, George Fred., ed. The Works of Henry Howard earl of Surrey and of Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder. London: Longman, 1815-16. 2 vols. PR 2370 A1 1815 ROBA.
First publication date: 1557
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.12.
Recent editing: 4:2002/5/29

Form: Sonnet
Rhyme: ababababababcc

Other poems by Henry Howard, earl of Surrey