Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET, by HENRY KING (1592-1669)



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First Line: Were thy heart soft as thou art fair
Last Line: Tomb'd in a living cruelty.
Subject(s): Transience; Impermanence


WERE thy heart soft as thou art fair,
Thou wer't a wonder past compare:
But frozen Love and fierce disdain
By their extremes thy graces stain.
Cold coyness quenches the still fires
Which glow in lovers' warm desires;
And scorn, like the quick lightning's blaze,
Darts death against affections gaze.
O Heavens, what prodigy is this
When Love in Beauty buried is!
Or that dead pity thus should be
Tomb'd in a living cruelty.





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