Versos English Henry Howard Alas! so all things now do hold their peace

English poem

Alas! so all things now do hold their peace

by (1833–1894)

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Alas! so all things now do hold their peace, Heaven and earth disturbèd in no thing. The beast, the air, the birds their song do cease; The nightès chare the stars about doth bring; Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less. So am not I, whom love, alas, doth wring, Bringing before my face the great increase Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing, In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease: For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring, But by and by the cause of my disease Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting, When that I think what grief it is, again, To live, and lack the thing should rid my pain.