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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  The Seventh Decade. Sonnet III. What viewed I, Dear! when I, thine eyes beheld?

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Diana

The Seventh Decade. Sonnet III. What viewed I, Dear! when I, thine eyes beheld?

Henry Constable (1562–1613)

WHAT viewed I, Dear! when I, thine eyes beheld?

Love in his glory? No, him THYRSIS saw,

And stood the boy! whilst he, his darts did draw;

Whose painted pride to baser swains he telled.

Saw I two suns? That sight is seen but seld.

Yet can their brood that teach the holy law

Gaze on their beams, and dread them not a straw;

Where princely looks are by their eyes repelled.

What saw I then? Doubtless it was, AMEN!

Armed with strong thunder and a lightning’s flame;

Who, bridegroom like, with power was riding then,

Meaning that none should see him when he came.

Yet did I gaze; and thereby caught the wound

Which burns my heart, and keeps my body sound.