Versos English Michael Drayton Xlvii

English poem

Xlvii

by

Listen in the reader

I see, I hear, I feel, I know, I rue My fate, my fame, my pain, my loss, my fall, Mishap, reproach, disdain, a crown, her hue, Cruel, still flying, false, fair, funeral, To cross, to shame, bewitch, deceive, and kill My first proceedings in their flowing bloom. My worthless pen fast chainèd to my will, My erring life through an uncertain doom, My thoughts that yet in lowliness do mount, My heart the subject of her tyranny; What now remains but her severe account Of murder's crying guilt, foul butchery! She was unhappy in her cradle breath, That given was to be another's death.