LIV. Because I breathe not love to every one

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

BECAUSE I breathe not love to every one,

Nor do not use set colours for to wear,

Nor nourish special locks of vowèd hair,

Nor give each speech a full point of a groan.

The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan

Of them who in their lips, LOVE’s standard bear:

“What he!” say they of me, “now I dare swear

He cannot love. No, no, let him alone!”

And think so still! so STELLA know my mind.

Profess indeed I do not CUPID’s art:

But you, fair maids! at length, this true shall find,

That his right badge is but worn in the heart.

Dumb swans not chattering pies, do lovers prove.

They love indeed who quake to say they love.