Page:Elizabethan sonnet-cycles.djvu/132



O murder!" I can cry no longer.

"Murder! O murder!" Is there none to aid me?

Life feeble is in force, death is much stronger;

Then let me die that shame may not upbraid me;

Nothing is left me now but shame or death.

I fear she feareth not foul murder's guilt,

Nor do I fear to lose a servile breath.

I know my blood was given to be spilt.

What is this life but maze of countless strays,

The enemy of true felicity,

Fitly compared to dreams, to flowers, to plays!

O life, no life to me, but misery!

Of shame or death, if thou must one,

Make choice of death and both are gone.