Page:Elizabethan sonnet-cycles.djvu/71



read at last the story of my woe,

The dreary abstracts of my endless cares,

With my life's sorrow interlinèd so,

Smoked with my sighs, and blotted with my tears,

The sad memorials of my miseries,

Penned in the grief of mine afflicted ghost,

My life's complaint in doleful elegies,

With so pure love as time could never boast.

Receive the incense which I offer here,

By my strong faith ascending to thy fame,

My zeal, my hope, my vows, my praise, my prayer,

My soul's oblations to thy sacred name;

Which name my Muse to highest heavens shall raise,

By chaste desire, true love, and virtuous praise.