POETRY PAGE - Anne Locke

A MEDITATION OF A PENITENT SINNER (SONNET 14) BY ANNE LOCKE

But render me my wonted joys again,

Which sin hath reft, and planted in their place

Doubt of thy mercy ground of all my pain.

The taste, that thy love whilom did embrace

My cheerful soul, the signs that did assure

My feeling ghost of favour in thy sight,

Are fled from me, and wretched I endure

Senseless of grace the absence of thy sp’rit.

Restore my joys, and make me feel again

The sweet return of grace that I have lost,

That I may hope I pray not all in vain.

With thy free sprite confirm my feeble ghost,

To hold my faith from ruin and decay

With fast affiance and assured stay.

A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner is a poetic study of Psalm 51. It is the first sonnet cycle to be published in English, comprising 26 sonnets based on the psalm. Anne Locke (c.1533-c.1590) was an English poet and supporter of the Protestant Reformation. She and her husband gave lodging to John Knox for a period. They continued to correspond, and Anne spent about 18 months in Geneva to ensure her safety following the accession of Mary Tudor. A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner was published in 1560 as an accompaniment to Anne Locke’s English translations of four of John Calvin’s sermons on Isaiah 38. •