from
Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
by Lady Mary Wroth
line

SONNET 35

FALSE hope, which feeds but to destroy, and spill
    What it first breeds, unnatural to the birth
    Of thine own womb; conceiving but to kill,
    And plenty gives to make the greater dearth,
So Tyrants do who falsely ruling earth
    Outwardly grace them, and with profits fill
    Advance those who appointed are to death
    To make their greater fall to please their will.
Thus shadow they their wicked vile intent
    Coloring evil with a show of good
    While in fair shows their malice so is spent;
    Hope kills the heart, and tyrants shed the blood.
For hope deluding brings us to the pride
Of our desires the farther down to slide.




Source:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th ed., v.1.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. 1690.




to Lady Mary Wroth

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