Sonnet XLVII. I see, I hear, I feel, I know, I rue

Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)

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.