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BALLADE: 29, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Deem as ye list. Upon good cause
Last Line: Likewise to think it is not.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wyat, Thomas
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


Deem as ye list, upon good cause
I may or think of this or that:
But what or why myself best knows
Whereby I think and fear not.
But thereunto I may well think
The doubtful sentence of this clause:
I would it were not as I think,
I would I thought it were not.
For if I thought it were not so,
Though it were so it griev'd me not:
Unto my thought it were as though
I hearkened though I hear not.
At that I see I cannot wink,
Nor from my thought so let it go.
I would it were not as I think,
I would I thought it were not.
Lo, how my thought might make me free,
Of that perchance that needeth not.
Perchance no doubt the dread I see,
I shrink at that I bear not.
But in my heart this word shall sink,
Until the proof may better be:
I would it were not as I think,
I would I thought it were not.
If it be not, show no cause why
I should so think, then care I not;
For I shall so myself apply
To be that I appear not:
That is, as one that shall not shrink
To be your own until I die.
And if that be not as I think,
Likewise to think it is not.





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