111. Love is a Sickness

Samuel Daniel. 1562-1619


LOVE is a sickness full of woes,
  All remedies refusing;
A plant that with most cutting grows,
  Most barren with best using.
              Why so?

More we enjoy it, more it dies;
If not enjoy'd, it sighing cries--
                Heigh ho!

Love is a torment of the mind,
  A tempest everlasting;
And Jove hath made it of a kind
  Not well, nor full nor fasting.
              Why so?

More we enjoy it, more it dies;
If not enjoy'd, it sighing cries--
                Heigh ho!

The Oxford Book of English Verse, HTML edition