Love

Amoretti: Sonnet XIII

by Edmund Spenser 1552–1599

From Amoretti

Love

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 awfull 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 lofty countenance seemes to scorne
Base thing, and thinke how she to heaven may clime;
Treading downe earth as lothsome and forlorne,
That hinders heavenly thoughts with drossy slime.
Yet lowly still vouchsafe to looke on me;
Such lowlinesse shall make you lofty be.

MLA

Spenser, Edmund. “Amoretti: Sonnet XIII.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/spenser/17/.

Chicago

Spenser, Edmund. “Amoretti: Sonnet XIII.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/spenser/17/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Edmund Spenser