Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645)

Sonnet: ‘Fairest, when by the rules of palmistry’

FAIREST, when by the rules of palmistry

You took my hand to try if you could guess,

By lines therein, if any wight there be

Ordained to make me know some happiness;

I wished that those characters could explain,

Whom I will never wrong with hope to win;

Or that by them a copy might be seen,

By you, O love, what thoughts I had within.

But since the hand of Nature did not set

(As providently loth to have it known)

The means to find that hidden alphabet,

Mine eyes shall be th’ interpreters alone;

By them conceive my thoughts, and tell me, fair,

If now you see her that doth love me there?