Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Laura—Part I

XXXVIII. Even as the lamp goeth out, that oil doth want

Robert Tofte (1561–1620)

EVEN as the lamp goeth out, that oil doth want,

Or as the sun doth fall in th’ Occident;

So did my heart within me ’gin to pant;

My vital spirits away by little went:

When, taking on me pity, graciously

My Mistress’s hem of garment, trailing down,

Touched me; and me revivèd suddenly.

Then if such virtue be within her gown;

Imagine what doth stay her corpse within!

Which who seeth, through sweetness needs must sin.