Page:Elizabethan sonnet-cycles.djvu/137



a king of sweet content at least,

But now from out my kingdom banished;

I was chief guest at fair dame pleasure's feast,

But now I am for want of succour famished;

I was a saint and heaven was my rest,

But now cast down into the lowest hell.

Vile caitiffs may not live among the blest,

Nor blessed men amongst cursed caitiffs dwell.

Thus am I made an exile of a king;

Thus choice of meats to want of food is changed;

Thus heaven's loss doth hellish torments bring;

Self crosses make me from myself estranged.

Yet am I still the same but made another;

Then not the same; alas, I am no other!