Poem A Day

Sonnet XLVI: Plain-Path'd Experience

by Michael Drayton

Plain-path'd Experience, th'unlearned's guide,

Her simple followers evidently shows

Sometimes what Schoolmen scarcely can decide,

Nor yet wise Reason absolutely knows.

In making trial of a murther wrought,

If the vile actors of the heinous deed

Near the dead body happily be brought,

Oft it hath been prov'd the breathless corse will bleed.

She's coming near, that my poor heart hath slain,

Long since departed, to the world no more,

The ancient wounds no longer can contain,

But fall to bleeding as they did before.

But what of this? Should she to death be led,

It furthers justice, but helps not the dead.

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