Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
¶l'5 17( ?)- 1547]
Complaint of the Absence of Her LoverBeing Upon the Sea
¶O HAPPY dames! that may embraceThe fruit of your delight,Help to bewail the woful caseAnd eke the heavy plightOf me, that wonted to rejoiceThe fortune of my pleasant choice:Good ladies, help to fill my mourning voice.
¶In ship, freight with rememberanceOf thoughts and pleasures past,He sails that hath in governanceMy life while it will last:With scalding sighs, for lack of gale,Furthering his hope, that is his sail,Toward me, the swete port of his avail.[194]Alas! how oft in dreams I seeThose eyes that were my food;Which sometime so dehghted me.That yet they do me good:Wherewith I wake with his returnWhose absent flame did make me burn:But when I find the lack, Lord! how I mourn!
¶When other lovers in arms acrossRejoice their chief delight,Drowned in tears, to mourn my lossI stand the bitter nightIn my window where I may seeBefore the winds how the clouds flee:Lo! what a mariner love hath made me!
¶And in green waves when the salt floodDoth rise by rage of wind,A thousand fancies in that moodAssail my restless mind.Alas! now drencheth my sweet foe,That with the spoil of my heart did go.And left me; but alas! why did he so?
¶And when the seas wax calm againTo chase fro me annoy,My doubtful hope doth cause me pain;So dread cuts off my joy.Thus in my wealth mingled with woeAnd of each thought a doubt doth grow;—Now he comes! Will he come? Alas! no, no.
¶39 The Means to Attain Happy LifeMartial, the things that do attainThe happy life be these, I find:—The richesse left, not got with pain;The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;