The Fourth Decade. Sonnet III. When your perfections to my thoughts appear

Henry Constable (1562–1613)

WHEN your perfections to my thoughts appear,

They say among themselves, “O happy we,

Which ever shall so rare an object see!”

But happy heart, if thoughts less happy were!

For their delights have cost my heart full dear,

In whom of love a thousand causes be;

And each cause breeds a thousand loves in me;

And each love more than thousand hearts can bear.

How can my heart so many loves then hold;

Which yet, by heaps, increase from day to day?

But like a ship that’s o’ercharged with gold,

Must either sink, or hurl the gold away.

But hurl not love! Thou canst not, feeble heart!

In thine own blood, thou therefore drownèd art!