Stanzas To Love

Sir Philip Sidney

Ah, poor Love, why dost thou live,
Thus to see thy service lost;
If she will no comfort give,
Make an end, yield up the ghost!

That she may, at length, approve
That she hardly long believed,
That the heart will die for love
That is not in time relieved.

Oh, that ever I was born
Service so to be refused;
Faithful love to be forborn!
Never love was so abused.

But, sweet Love, be still awhile;
She that hurt thee, Love, may heal thee;
Sweet!  I see within her smile
More than reason can reveal thee.

For, though she be rich and fair,
Yet she is both wise and kind,
And, therefore, do thou not despair
But thy faith may fancy find.

Yet, although she be a queen
That may such a snake despise,
Yet, with silence all unseen,
Run, and hide thee in her eyes:

Where if she will let thee die,
Yet at latest gasp of breath,
Say that in a lady’s eye
Love both took his life and death.

Next 10 Poems

• Sir Philip Sidney : The Bargain
• Sir Philip Sidney : The Dart, The Beams, The Sting, So Strong I Prove
• Sir Philip Sidney : The Highway
• Sir Philip Sidney : The Seven Wonders Of England
• Sir Philip Sidney : The Smokes Of Melancholy
• Sir Philip Sidney : This Lady's Cruelty
• Sir Philip Sidney : Thou Blind Man's Mark
• Sir Philip Sidney : To The Sad Moon
• Sir Philip Sidney : To The Tune Of A Neapolitan Villanel
• Sir Philip Sidney : Translation From Horace, Book Ii. Ode X., Beginning 'rectius Vives, Licini,' &c.

Previous 10 Poems

• Sir Philip Sidney : Splendidis Longum Valedico Nugis
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxxix: Come, Sleep!
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxxiii: I Might
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxxi: With How Sad Steps, O Moon
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxx: Whether The Turkish New Moon
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxviii: You That With Allegory's Curious Frame
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxvii: Because I Oft
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxvi: Though Dusty Wits
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxv: The Wisest Scholar
• Sir Philip Sidney : Sonnet Xxix: Like Some Weak Lords