Sonnet XL. Mark when she smiles with amiable cheer

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

MARK when she smiles with amiable cheer,

And tell me whereto can ye liken it;

When on each eyelid sweetly do appear

An hundred graces as in shade to sit.

Likest it seemeth, in my simple wit,

Unto the fair sunshine in summer’s day;

That, when a dreadful storm away is flit,

Through the broad world doth spread his goodly ray;

At sight whereof, each bird that sits on spray,

And every beast that to his den was fled,

Comes forth afresh out of their late dismay,

And to the light lift up their drooping head.

So my storm-beaten heart likewise is cheered

With that sunshine, when cloudy looks are cleared.