To St Mary Magdalen

  
  FOR few nights' solace in delicious béd
    Where heat of lust did kindle flames of héll,
    Thou nak'd on naked rock in desert céll
Lay thirty years, and tears of grief did shéd.
But for that time thy heart there sorrowéd
    Thou now in heaven eternally dost dwéll,
    And for each tear which from thine eyes then féll,
A sea of pleasure now is renderéd.
If short delights entice my heart to stráy,
    Let me by thy long penance learn to knów
How dear I should for trifling pleasures páy;
       And if I virtue's rough beginning shún,
Let thy eternal joys unto me shów
       What high rewards by little pain is wón. 		Every line of this sonnet has a masculine ending, that is, the closing feet are standard iambs and therefore end with a stressed syllable.

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Henry Constable (1562-1613)

  
 
   

created by Heather C. Milligan