Sonnet LX. They, that in course of heavenly spheres are skilled

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

THEY, that in course of heavenly spheres are skilled,

To every planet point his sundry year:

In which her circle’s voyage is fulfilled,

As Mars in threescore years doth run his sphere.

So, since the winged god his planet clear

Began in me to move, one year is spent:

The which doth longer unto me appear,

Than all those forty which my life out-went.

Then by that count, which lovers’ books invent,

The sphere of Cupid forty years contains,

Which I have wasted in long languishment,

That seemed the longer for my greater pains.

But let my love’s fair Planet short her ways,

This year ensuing, or else short my days.