poem 7
Of his ring sent to his lady
Since thou my ring go where I ne may,
Since thou may speak where I must hold my peace,
Say unto her that is my life's stay,
Graven within, which I do here express;
That sooner shall the sun not shine by day,
And with the rain the floods shall waxen less,
Than I for change or choice of other love
Do ever seek my fancy to remove.
(This comes from an 1870 reprint of 'Tottel's Miscellany' - the very first English poetry anthology, originally published in 1557 - which I bought as I dawdled to Medical School through bombed streets in 1944 London. As well as poems by the fairly well-known Wyatt and Surrey, it contains a large number, like the above, attributed to "Uncertain Authors". It is touching that maybe the writer's only memorial is this verse - heartfelt though no work of genius. He is one of the many anonymous pebbles on the beach of lovelorn poets!)