d,
Only to prove from worse things vainly tried
How far more precious grew thy sum of good.
If I so lov'd thee, what is my defence,
That thy dear love fail'd then my steps to stay,
That idle hours were idly given to sense,
And soul forsaken at the call of clay?
O let love grant excuse; my sensual part
Dwelt ever far from pure untainted thee;
It held no conversation with my heart,
Nor, us'd or check'd, could be thine injury.
If once it triumph'd, carrying me away,
It stole but earth; my soul did with thee stay.

X

If that my sensual deed had stol'n from thee
Aught that were part of thy most precious love,
Or made to swerve the loving soul of me,
That to thy service it should duller prove;
Had't made to me thy grace less gracious seem,
Thy worth less worth, thy love a smaller prize,
Or bated aught of thy most rich esteem,
Which still grew richer in thy servant's eyes;
Then were it fault too foul to find excuse,
And all I writ of thee were vows untrue;
My verse were nought but idle poet's use,
Conceit's worn weeds lac'd o'er with wording new.
But 'twas not so; though true my love before,
'Twas thenceforth purg'd, and priz'd thee all the more.

XI

Wherefore should I mine own heart not unfold,
And his true workings to the world disclose?
Why self-unlocking for unseemly hold,
Which me, as I show'd others, human shows?
If I to Nature held her truthful glass,
And on the stage life's self did strive to set,
Creating thousand shadows that should pass
For very substance when men's eyes they met;
If there I imag'd love, hate, doubt, and trust,
If all the pageant of the mortal heart,
Might not one say: 'This man within him must
Have learn'd from Nature what he shap'd in art'?
All passions' depths he only can reveal
Who doth them all within him living feel.

XII

Whence came it that I knew in others' case
How bitter-sweet and tyrant-slave is love,
How quick to jealous doubt it yieldeth place,
If mine own self did ne'er his power prove?
Whence knew I the deep sense that in the soul
Is thrill'd and thrall'd by perfect beauty's sight,
If never beauty did myself control
With all the mastery of sovran might?
Since so my heart laid bare what it contain'd
Of understanding of love's mysteries