Sonnet XII. My spotless love hovers, with purest wings

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

MY spotless love hovers, with purest wings,

About the temple of the proudest frame;

Where blaze those lights, fairest of earthly things,

Which clear our clouded world with brightest flame.

M’ ambitious thoughts, confinèd in her face,

Affect no honour, but what she can give:

My hopes do rest in limits of her grace;

I weigh no comfort, unless she relieve.

For she, that can my heart imparadise,

Holds in her fairest hand, what dearest is.

My Fortune’s Wheel ’s the Circle of her Eyes;

Whose rolling grace deign once a turn of bliss!

All my life’s sweet consists in her alone;

So much I love the most unloving one.