In vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace,And doe myne humbled hart before her poure,The whiles her foot she in my necke doth place,And tread my life downe in the lowly floure*.And yet the lyon, that is lord of power,And reigneth over every beast in field,In his most pride disdeigneth to devoureThe silly […]

The merry cuckow, messenger of Spring,His trompet shrill hath thrise already sounded.That warnes al lovers wayte upon their king,Who now is coming forth with girland crouned.With noyse whereof the quyre of byrds resoundedTheir anthemes sweet, devized of loves prayse,That all the woods theyr ecchoes back rebounded,As if they knew the meaning of their layes.But mongst […]

The rolling wheele that runneth often round,The hardest steele, in tract of time doth teare:And drizling drops, that often doe redound*,The firmest flint doth in continuance weare:Yet cannot I, with many a drooping teareAnd long intreaty, soften her hard hart,That she will once vouchsafe my plaint to heare,Or looke with pitty on my payneful smart.But […]

The glorious pourtraict of that angels face,Made to amaze weake mens confused skil,And this worlds worthlesse glory to embase,What pen, what pencil!, can expresse her fill?For though he colours could devize at will,And eke his learned hand at pleasure guide,Least, trembling, it his workmanship should spill*,Yet many wondrous things there are beside:The sweet eye-glaunces, that […]

One day as I unwarily did gazeOn those fayre eyes, my loves immortall light,The whiles my stonisht hart stood in amaze,Through sweet illusion of her lookes delight,I mote perceive how, in her glauncing sight,Legions of Loves with little wings did fly,Darting their deadly arrows, fyry bright,At every rash beholder passing by.One of those archers closely […]

Ye tradefull Merchants, that, with weary toyle,Do seeke most pretious things to make your gain,And both the Indias of their treasure spoile,What needeth you to seeke so farre in vaine?For loe, my Love doth in her selfe containeAll this worlds riches that may farre be found:If saphyres, loe, her eies be saphyres plaine;If rubies, loe, […]

Retourne agayne, my forces late dismayd,Unto the siege by you abandon’d quite.Great shame it is to leave, like one afrayd,So fayre a peece* for one repulse so light.‘Gaynst such strong castles needeth greater mightThen those small forts which ye were wont belay**:Such haughty mynds, enur’d to hardy fight,Disdayne to yield unto the first assay.Bring therefore […]

In that proud port which her so goodly graceth,Whiles her faire face she reares up to the skie,And to the ground her eie-lids low embaseth,Most goodly temperature ye may descry;Myld humblesse mixt with awful! maiestie.For, looking on the earth whence she was borne,Her minde remembreth her mortalitie,Whatso is fayrest shall to earth returne.But that same […]

Faire Proud! now tell me, why should faire be proud,Sith all worlds glorie is but drosse uncleane,And in the shade of death it selfe shall shroud,However now thereof ye little weene!That goodly idoll, now so gay beseene*,Shall doffe her fleshes borrowd fayre attyre,And be forgot as it had never beene,That many now much worship and […]

Sweet is the rose, but growes upon a brere;Sweet is the iunipeer; but sharpe his bough;Sweet is the eglantine, but pricketh nere;Sweet is the firbloome, but his braunches rough*;Sweet is the cypresse, but his rynd is rough;Sweet is the nut, but bitter is his pill**;Sweet is the broome-flowre, but yet sowre enough;And sweet is moly, […]

How long shall this lyke-dying lyfe endure,And know no end of her owne mysery,But wast and weare away in termes unsure,‘Twixt feare and hope depending doubtfully!Yet better were attonce to let me die,And shew the last ensample of your pride,Then to torment me thus with cruelty,To prove your powre, which I too wel have tride.But […]

When I behold that beauties wonderment,And rare perfection of each goodly part,Of Natures skill the onely complement,I honor and admire the Makers art.But when I feele the bitter balefull smartWhich her fayre eyes unwares doe worke in mee,That death out of theyr shiny beames doe dart,I thinke that I a new Pandora see,Whom all the […]

Penelope, for her Ulisses sake,Deviz’d a web her wooers to deceave;In which the worke that she all day did make,The same at night she did againe unreave.Such subtile craft my damzell doth conceave,Th’importune suit of my desire to shonne:For all that I in many dayes do weave,In one short houre I find by her undonne.So […]

This holy season*, fit to fast and pray,Men to devotion ought to be inclynd:Therefore, I lykewise, on so holy day,For my sweet saynt some service fit will find.Her temple fayre is built within my mind,In which her glorious ymage placed is;On which my thoughts doo day and night attend,Lyke sacred priests that never thinke amisse.There […]

Was it the worke of Nature or of Art,Which tempred so the feature of her face,That pride and meeknesse, mist by equall part,Doe both appeare t’adorne her beauties grace?For with mild pleasance, which doth pride displace,She to her love doth lookers eyes allure;And with stern countenance back again doth chaceTheir looser lookes that stir up […]

My hungry eyes, through greedy covetizeStill to behold the obiect of their paine,With no contentment can themselves suffize;But having, pine, and having not, complaine.For lacking it, they cannot lyfe sustayne;And having it, they gaze on it the more,In their amazement lyke Narcissus vaine,Whose eyes him starv’d: so plenty makes me poore.Yet are mine eyes so […]

Lyke as a ship, that through the ocean wydeBy conduct of some star doth make her way,Whenas a storm hath dimd her trusty guyde,Out of her course doth wander far astray,So I, whose star, that wont with her bright rayMe to direct, with cloudes is over-cast,Doe wander now in darknesse and dismay,Through hidden perils round […]

Great wrong I doe, I can it not deny,To that most sacred empresse, my dear dred,Not finishing her Queene of Faery,That mote enlarge her living prayses, dead.But Lodwick*, this of grace to me aread:Do ye not thinck th’accomplishment of itSufficient worke for one mans simple head,All were it, as the rest, but rudely writ?How then […]

The paynefull smith with force of fervent heatThe hardest yron soone doth mollify,That with his heavy sledge he can it beat,And fashion to what he it list apply.Yet cannot all these flames in which I fryHer hart, more hard then yron, soft a whit,Ne all the playnts and prayers with which IDoe beat on th’andvile […]

Ah! why hath Nature to so hard a hartGiven so goodly giftes of beauties grace,Whose pryde depraves each other better part,And all those pretious ornaments deface?Sith to all other beastes of bloody raceA dreadfull countenance she given hath,That with theyr terrour all the rest may chace,And warne to shun the daunger of theyr wrath.But my […]