1. I ransom with my life one unnamed,
For whom my heart is seized with love and care.

2. The sweetest creature, harshest ever wrought,
For her in passion lost, blind and deaf I sought.

3. She came in fullest grace, and we forgot
The beauty of the moon at perfect height.

4. She walks, her dangling bracelets hardly bear
The pace, her breast thrust forward in her gait.

5. Then scolding, blaming, sulking hour on hour,
Her mouth that pierced me through, till finally

6. She held me from a kiss, and then she said
Fie on you! Never did I think you base.

7. I said my bounty is for her to take,
Else sheeting off her head's an easy task.

8. So she's a standstill between grace and break,
The choice is yours, choose this way or that.

9. She said show patience. I said, love allows
No patience. I cannot show patience now.

10. I said some fawn must bleed, then will suffice
A taste of blood from the bled fawn. And so

11. I clasped her with my soul and heart, not flesh -
Whence can I flesh with which to clasp her, pray!