The Poetry Corner

Sonnet 27

By Michael Drayton

I heare some say, this man is not in loue, Who, can he loue? a likely thing they say: Reade but his verse, and it will easily proue; O iudge not rashly (gentle Sir) I pray, Because I loosely tryfle in this sort, As one that faine his sorrowes would beguile: You now suppose me, all this time in sport, And please your selfe with this conceit the while. You shallow censures; sometime see you not In greatest perills some men pleasant be, Where fame by death is onely to be got, They resolute, so stands the case with me; Where other men, in depth of passion cry, I laugh at fortune, as in iest to die.