Sonnet V. Ah pale and dying infant of the spring

Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)

AH pale and dying infant of the spring,

How rightly now do I resemble thee!

That self same hand that thee from stalk did wring,

Hath rent my breast and robbed my heart from me.

Yet shalt thou live. For why? Thy native vigour

Shall thrive by woeful dew-drops of my dolour;

And from the wounds I bear through fancy’s rigour,

My streaming blood shall yield the crimson colour.

The ravished sighs that ceaseless take their issue

From out the furnace of my heart inflamed,

To yield you lasting springs shall never miss you;

So by my plaints and pains, you shall be famed.

Let my heart’s heat and cold, thy crimson nourish,

And by my sorrows let thy beauty flourish.