Summary

Possibly the song shown on page 271 of the New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse, which starts:

All night I weep, all day I cry, ay me;
I still do wish, though yet deny, ay me;
I sigh, I mourn, I say that still
I only am the store for ill, ay me;

1 Annotation

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"All night I weepe"

All night I weep, all day I cry, ay me;
I still do wish, though yet deny, ay me;
I sigh, I mourn, I say that still
I only am the store for ill, ay me.

In coldest hopes I freeze, yet burn, ay me;
From flames I strive to fly, yet turn, ay me;
From grief I haste but sorrows hie,
And on my heart all sorrows lie, ay me.

From contraries I seek to run, ay me;
But contraries I cannot shun, ay me;
For they delight their force to try,
And to despair my thoughts do tie.

Whither, alas, shall I go, ay me;
Whenas despair all hopes outgo? ay me;
If to the forest, Cupid hies,
And my poor soul to his law ties, ay me.

To the court? Oh no. He cries fie, ay me;
There you no true love shall espy, ay me;
Leave that place to falsest lovers,
Your true love all truth discovers, ay me.

Then quiet rest, and no more prove, ay me;
All places are alike to love, ay me;
And constant be in this begun;
Yet say, til life with love be done, ay me.

Lady Mary Wroth
(1621)

The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse By Alastair Fowler (p. 229)

http://short.to/165w9

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.

References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1667

  • Feb