The Sixth Decade. Sonnet I. One sun unto my life’s day gives true light

Henry Constable (1562–1613)

ONE sun unto my life’s day gives true light.

One moon dissolves my stormy night of woes.

One star my fate and happy fortune shows.

One saint I serve, one shrine with vows I dight.

One sun transfix’d, hath burnt my heart outright.

One moon opposed, my love in darkness throws.

One star hath bid my thoughts my wrongs disclose.

Saints scorn poor swains, shrines do my vows no right.

Yet if my love be found a holy fire,

Pure, unstained, without idolatry;

And she, nathless, in hate of my desire,

Lives to repose her in my misery.

My sun! my moon! my star! my saint! my shrine!

Mine be the torment, but the guilt be thine!