| Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–42). The Poetical Works. 1880. | | | | Odes | | The Complaint of a deserted Lover |
| | | HOW should I | |
| Be so pleasant, | |
| In my semblant, | |
| As my fellows be? | |
| Not long ago, | 5 |
| It chanced so, | |
| As I did walk alone; | |
| I heard a man, | |
| That now and than | |
| Himself did thus bemoan: | 10 |
| ‘Alas!’ he said, | |
| ‘I am betray’d, | |
| And utterly undone; | |
| Whom I did trust, | |
| And think so just, | 15 |
| Another man hath won. | |
| ‘My service due, | |
| And heart so true, | |
| On her I did bestow; | |
| I never meant | 20 |
| For to repent, | |
| In wealth, nor yet in woe. | |
| ‘Each western wind | |
| Hath turned her mind, | |
| And blown it clean away; | 25 |
| Thereby my wealth, | |
| My mirth and health, | |
| Are driven to great decay. | |
| ‘Fortune did smile | |
| A right short while, | 30 |
| And never said me nay; | |
| With pleasant plays, | |
| And joyful days, | |
| My time to pass away. | |
| ‘Alas! alas! | 35 |
| The time so was, | |
| So never shall it be, | |
| Since she is gone, | |
| And I alone | |
| Am left as you may see. | 40 |
| ‘Where is the oath? | |
| Where is the troth? | |
| That she to me did give? | |
| Such feigned words, | |
| With sely bourds, | 45 |
| Let no wise man believe. | |
| ‘For even as I, | |
| Thus wofully, | |
| Unto myself complain: | |
| If ye then trust, | 50 |
| Needs learn ye must, | |
| To sing my song in vain. | |
| ‘How should I | |
| Be so pleasant, | |
| In my semblant, | 55 |
| As my fellows be?’ | | | | |
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