Social Commentaries

Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaine

by Edmund Spenser 1552–1599

From Epigrams and Sonnets

Social Commentaries

Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaine
Unto the type of true nobility,
And not by painted shewes, and titles vaine,
Derived farre from famous auncestrie,
Behold them both in their right visnomy
Here truly pourtray’d as they ought to be,
And striving both for termes of dignitie,
To be advanced highest in degree.
And when thou doost with equall insight see
The ods twist both, of both then deem aright,
And chuse the better of them both to thee;
But thanks to him that it deserves behight:
To Nenna first, that first this worke created,
And next to Iones, that truely it translated.

MLA

Spenser, Edmund. “Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaine.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/spenser/119/.

Chicago

Spenser, Edmund. “Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaine.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/spenser/119/.

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