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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Sonnet CII. Vain gallants! whose much longing spirits tickle

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Parthenophil and Parthenophe

Sonnet CII. Vain gallants! whose much longing spirits tickle

Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609)

VAIN gallants! whose much longing spirits tickle;

Whose brains swell with abundance of much wit,

And would be touched fain with an amorous fit:

O lend your eyes, and bend your fancies fickle!

You, whom Affection’s dart did never prickle!

You, which hold lovers, fools; and argue it!

Gaze on my Sun! and if tears do not trickle

From your much mastered eyes (where Fancies sit):

Then, Eagles! will I term you, for your eyes;

But Bears! or Tigers! for your savage hearts!

But, if it chance, such fountains should arise,

And you made like partakers of my smarts;

Her, for her piercing eyes, an Eagle, name!

But, for her heart, a Tiger, never tame!