Love

An Excellent Sonnet of a Nymph

by Sir Philip Sidney 1554–1586

From England's Helicon (1600), ed. A. H. Bullen (1887)

Love

Virtue, beauty, and speech, did strike, wound, charm.
My heart, eyes, ears, with wonder, love, delight;
First, second, last, did bind, enforce, and arm,
His works, shows, suits, with wit, grace, and vows' might.

Thus honour, liking, trust, much, far, and deep.
Held, pierced, possess'd, my judgment, sense, and will.
Till wrongs, contempt, deceit, did grow, steal, creep.
Bands, favour, faith, to break, defile, and kill.

Then grief, unkindness, proof, took, kindled, taught.
Well grounded, noble, due, spite, rage, disdain;
But ah, alas! in vain, my mind, sight, thought.
Doth him, his face, his words, leave, shun, refrain.
For nothing, time, nor place, can loose, quench, ease,
Mine own, embraced, sought, knot, fire, disease.

✦ ✦ ✦

Signed "Sir Phil. Sidney" in England's Helicon.

MLA

Sidney, Philip. “An Excellent Sonnet of a Nymph.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/sidney/164/.

Chicago

Sidney, Philip. “An Excellent Sonnet of a Nymph.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/sidney/164/.

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