Astrophil and Stella
Sonnet 50
Stella, the fullness of my thoughts of thee
Cannot be stayed within my panting breast,
But they do swell and struggle forth of me,
Till that in words thy figure be expressed:
And yet, as soon as they so formed be,
According to my lord love's one behest,
With sad eyes I their weak proportion see
To portrait that which in this world is best.
So that I cannot choose but write my mind,
And cannot choose but put out what I write,
While these poor babes their death in birth do find;
And now my pen these lines had dashed quite
But that they stopped his fury from the same,
Because their forefront bare sweet Stella's name.
Sir Philip Sidney
Back to Sonnet 49
Forward to Sonnet 51