RPO -- Sir Thomas Wyatt : I Abide and Abide and Better Abide

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

I Abide and Abide and Better Abide

1I abide and abide and better abide,

2And after the old proverb, the happy day;

3And ever my lady to me doth say,

4"Let me alone and I will provide."

5I abide and abide and tarry the tide,

6And with abiding speed well ye may.

7Thus do I abide I wot alway,

8Nother obtaining nor yet denied.

9Ay me! this long abiding

10Seemeth to me, as who sayeth,

11A prolonging of a dying death,

12Or a refusing of a desir'd thing.

13Much were it better for to be plain

14Than to say "abide" and yet shall not obtain.

Notes

1] First printed by Nott.

2] old proverb. This proverb is found in the Envoy to the "Plaint," once attributed to Chaucer: "Better is it to suffer and fortune abide/Than hastily to clime and sodenly to slyde."

5] tarry the tide: bide my time, wait (proverbial).

6] Wyatt ironically observes that the lady ("ye") does fine with her "abiding speed" ("continuing success").

7] I wot alway: forever, for all I know.

8] Nother: neither.

10] as who sayeth: what one might call, as they say.

13] to be plain: say her mind, not equivocate, i.e., reject him.

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: British Library Library Additional MS 17492 (Devonshire MS), fol. 77v; cf. Collected Poems, ed. Kenneth Muir and Patricia Thomson (Liverpool University Press, 1969): 231.
First publication date: 1815
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger, Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RP 1963: I.4; RPO 1994.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/24

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacddcee

Other poems by Sir Thomas Wyatt