 | "Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable
Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other" |  |
To walke on doubtfull ground
Not to trust to much but beware by others calamaties.
To walke on doubtfull ground, where danger is vnseenDoth double men that carelesse be in depe dispaire I wene,
For as the blynde dothe feare, what footing he shall fynde:
So doth the wise before he speak, mistrust the strangers mynde.
For he that blontly runnes, may light among the breers,
And so be put vnto his plunge where danger least apperes:
The bird that selly foole, doth warn vs to beware,
Who lighteth not on euery bushe, he dreadeth so the snare.
The mouse that shonnes the trap, doth shew what harme doth ly:
Within the swete betraying bait, that oft disceiues the eye.
The fish auoides the hoke, though hunger byds him bite,
And houereth still about the worme, whereon is his delyte.
Yf birdes and beastes can see, where their vndoyng lies:
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How should a mischief scape our heades, [that] haue both wit and eyes.
What madnesse may be more, then plow the barreyn field:
Or any frutefull wordes to sow, to eares that are vnwyld.
They here and than mislyke, they like and than they lothe,
Thei hate, thei loue, thei skorn, thei praise, yea sure thei ca[n] do both
We see what falles they haue, that clyme on trees vnknowne:
As they that truste to rotten bowes, must nedes be ouerthrowne.
A smart in silence kept, doth ease the hart much more,
Than for to plain where is no salue, for to recure the sore.
Wherfore my grief I hide, within a holow hart:
Vntill the smoke thereof be spied, by flaming of the smart.
| "Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable
Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other" | |