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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Sonnet XXXIV. Why should a Maiden’s heart be of that proof

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Diella

Sonnet XXXIV. Why should a Maiden’s heart be of that proof

Richard Linche (fl. 1596–1601)

WHY should a Maiden’s heart be of that proof

as to resist the sharp-pointed dart of Love?

My Mistress’ eye kills strongest man aloof;

methinks, he’s weak, that cannot quail a Dove!

A lovely Dove so fair and so divine,

able to make what cynic soe’er liveth,

Upon his knees, to beg of their bright eyen,

one smiling look, which life from death reviveth.

The frozen heart of cold ZENOCRATES

had been dissolvèd into hot Desire,

Had PHRYNE cast such sunbeams from her eyes

(such eyes are cause that my heart flames in fire!):

And yet with patience I must take my woe;

In that my dearest Love will have it so.