Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Phillip Sidney - Astrophil and Stella: 2

Not at first sight, nor with dribbed shot
Love gave the wound, which while I breathe will bleed:
But knowne worth did in mine of time proceed,
Till by degrees it had full conquest got.

I saw and liked, I liked but loved not,
I loved, but straight did not what Love decreed:
At length to Loves decrees, I forc'd, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partiall lot.

Now even that footstep of lost libertie
Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite,
I call it praise to suffer Tyrannie;

And now employ the remnant of my wit,
To make my selfe beleeve, that all is well,
While with a feeling skill I paint my hell.

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