Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET by EDWARD HERBERT

First Line: THUS ENDS MY LOVE, BUT THIS DOTH GRIEVE ME MOST
Last Line: IT BE A TEMPLE, BUT WITHOUT A SAINT.
Subject(s): LOVE - LOSS OF;
THUS ends my love, but this doth grieve me most,
That so it ends; but that ends too; this yet,
Besides the wishes, hopes and time I lost,
Troubles my mind awhile, that I am set
Free, worse than deni'd: I can neither boast
Choice nor success, as my case is, nor get
Pardon from myself that I loved not
A better mistress, or her worse; this debt
Only's her due still, that she be forgot
Ere chang'd, lest I love none; this done, the taint
Of foul inconstancy is clear'd at least
In me, there only rests but to unpaint
Her form in my mind, that so dispossess'd,
It be a temple, but without a saint.



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