Sonnet XXIX. See! how the stubborn damsel doth deprave

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

SEE! how the stubborn damsel doth deprave

My simple meaning with disdainful scorn;

And by the bay, which I unto her gave,

Accounts myself her captive quite forlorn.

The bay (quoth she) is of the victors born,

Yielded them by the vanquish’d as their meeds,

And they therewith do poets’ heads adorn,

To sing the glory of their famous deeds.

But sith she will the conquest challenge needs,

Let her accept me as her faithful thrall;

That her great triumph, which my skill exceeds,

I may in trump of fame blaze over all.

Then would I deck her head with glorious bays,

And fill the world with her victorious praise.