Mary Wroth

Sonnet 38 - What pleasure can a banished creature

What pleasure can a banished creature have

In all the pastimes that invented are

By wit or learning, absence making war

Against all peace that may a biding crave;

 

Can we delight but in a welcome grave

Where we may bury pains, and so be far

From loathed company who always jar

Upon the string of mirth that pastime gave;

 

The knowing part of joy is deemed the heart,

If that be gone what joy can joy impart

When senseless is the feeler of our mirth?

 

No, I am banished, and no good shall find

But all my fortunes must with mischief bind,

Who but for misery did gain a birth.