CV. Unhappy sight! And hath she vanished by?

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

UNHAPPY sight! And hath she vanished by?

So near! in so good time! so free a place!

Dead glass! dost thou thy object so embrace,

As what my heart still sees thou canst not spy?

I swear by her I love and lack, that I

Was not in fault, who bent thy dazzling race

Only unto the heaven of STELLA’s face;

Counting but dust what in the way did lie.

But cease mine eyes! your tears do witness well

That you guiltless thereof, your nectar missed:

Curst be the page from whence the bad torch fell!

Curst be the night which did your strife resist!

Curst be the coachman that did drive so fast!

With no worse curse than absence makes me taste.