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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Sonnet XIII. When none of these, my sorrows would allege

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Parthenophil and Parthenophe

Sonnet XIII. When none of these, my sorrows would allege

Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609)

WHEN none of these, my sorrows would allege;

I sought to find the means, how I might hate thee!

Then hateful Curiousness I did in-wedge

Within my thoughts, which ever did await thee!

I framed mine Eyes for an unjust controlment;

And mine unbridled Thoughts (because I dare not

Seek to compel) did pray them, take enrolment

Of Nature’s fault in her! and, equal, spare not!

They searched, and found “her eyes were sharp and fiery,

A mole upon her forehead coloured pale,

Her hair disordered, brown, and crispèd wiry,

Her cheeks thin speckled with a summer’s male.”

This told, men weened it was a pleasing tale

Her to disgrace, and make my follies fade.

And please, it did! but her, more gracious made.