| |
| DEEM as ye list upon good cause, | |
| I may or think of this, or that; | |
| But what, or why myself best knows | |
| Whereby I think and fear not. | |
| But thereunto I may well think | 5 |
| The doubtful sentence of this clause; | |
| ‘I would it were not as I think; | |
| I would I thought it were not.’ | |
| For if I thought it were not so, | |
| Though it were so, it grieved me not; | 10 |
| Unto my thought it were as tho’ | |
| I hearkened though I hear not. | |
| At that I see I cannot wink, | |
| Nor from my thought so let it go; | |
| ‘I would it were not as I think; | 15 |
| I would I thought it were not.’ | |
| Lo! how my thought might make me free, | |
| Of that perchance it needs not. | |
| Perchance none doubt the dread I see; | |
| I shrink at that I bear not. | 20 |
| But in my heart this word shall sink, | |
| Until the proof may better be; | |
| ‘I would it were not as I think; | |
| I would I thought it were not.’ | |
| If it be not, shew no cause why | 25 |
| I should so think, then care I not; | |
| For I shall so myself apply | |
| To be that I appear not. | |
| That is, as one that shall not shrink | |
| To be your own until I die; | 30 |
| ‘And if that be not as I think, | |
| Likewise to think it is not.’ | |
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