The Heart and Service
The Heart and Service
Original Text
British Library Devonshire MS. 2711, fol. 11v; cf. Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, ed. Kenneth Muir and Patricia Thomson (Liverpool, 1969): 193.
1The heart and service to you proffer'd
2With right good will full honestly,
3Refuse it not, since it is offer'd,
4But take it to you gentlely.
5And though it be a small present,
6Yet good, consider graciously
7The thought, the mind, and the intent
8Of him that loves you faithfully.
9It were a thing of small effect
10To work my woe thus cruelly,
11For my good will to be abject:
12Therefore accept it lovingly.
14I undertake it pleasantly;
15Bid ye me go, and straight I glide
16At your commandement humbly.
17Pain or pleasure, now may you plant
18Even which it please you steadfastly;
19Do which you list, I shall not want
20To be your servant secretly.
21And since so much I do desire
22To be your own assuredly,
23For all my service and my hire
24Reward your servant liberally.
Notes
13] travel: possibly "travail": hard work. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1815
RPO poem Editors
F. D. Hoeniger; Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RP 1963: I.9; RPO 1994.
Rhyme