James I of Scotland

DD102801

An untitled poem by James I of Scotland was proposed to Delia for Poets in Prison.

Poem text

When as I lay in bed alone waking,
New partit out of sleep a little tofore,
Fell to my mind of many divers thing,
Of this and that, I cannot say wherefore,
But sleep for craft in earth I might no more:
For which as though I could no better while,
But took a book, to read upon a while.

The long dayis, and the nightis eke,
I would bewail my fortune in this wise,
For which against distress comfort to seek,
My custom was on mornings for to tise
Early as day - o happy exercise!