Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Astrophel and Stella

XXXIII. I Might—unhappy word, O me!—I might

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

I MIGHT—unhappy word, O me!—I might,

And then would not, or could not see my bliss:

Till now, wrapt in a most infernal night,

I find, how heavenly day, wretch! I did miss.

Heart rent thyself! thou dost thyself but right.

No lovely PARIS made thy HELEN his;

No force, no fraud robbed thee of thy delight;

No Fortune, of thy fortune author is;

But to myself, myself did give the blow;

While too much wit (forsooth!) so troubled me,

That I, respects for both our sakes must show:

And yet could not by rising morn foresee

How fair a day was near. O punisht eyes!

That I had been more foolish or more wise!