Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
Sonnets and Poetical TranslationsXXXIII. Thou blind man’s mark! thou fool’s self-chosen snare!
Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)T
Fond fancy’s scum! and dregs of scattered thought!
Band of all evils! cradle of causeless care!
Thou web of will! whose end is never wrought.
D
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware!
Too long! too long asleep thou hast me brought!
Who should my mind to higher things prepare;
But yet in vain, thou hast my ruin sought!
In vain, thou mad’st me to vain things aspire!
In vain, thou kindlest all thy smoky fire!
For virtue hath this better lesson taught.
Within myself, to seek my only hire:
Desiring nought, but how to kill D