Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Licia

Sonnet XXXIX. My grief began, fair Saint, when first I saw

Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)

MY grief began, fair Saint, when first I saw

Love, in those eyes, sit ruling with disdain;

Whose sweet commands did keep a world in awe:

And caused them serve, your favour to obtain.

I stood as one enchanted with a frown;

Yet smiled to see all creatures serve those eyes:

Where each with sighs paid tribute to that crown;

And thought them gracèd by your dumb replies.

But I, ambitious, could not be content

Till that my service, more than sighs made known;

And for that end, my heart to you I sent,

To say and swear that, Fair! it is your own.

Then greater graces, LICIA, do impart!

Not dumb replies, unto a speaking heart.