Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Diella

Sonnet XXX. He that can count the candles of the sky

Richard Linche (fl. 1596–1601)

HE that can count the candles of the sky,

reckon the sands whereon Pactolus flows,

Or number numberless small atomie[s],

what strange and hideous monsters Nilus shows,

What mis-shaped beasts vast Africa doth yield,

what rare-formed fishes live in the ocean,

What coloured flowers do grow in Tempe’s field,

how many hours are since the world began:

Let him, none else, give judgement of my grief!

let him declare the beauties of my Love!

And he will say my pains pass all relief:

and he will judge her for a Saint above!

But, as those things, there’s no man can unfold

So, nor her Fair, nor my Grief may be told!