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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  114. Sonet

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Mark Alexander Boyd. 1563–1601

114. Sonet

FRA bank to bank, fra wood to wood I rin, 
  Ourhailit with my feeble fantasie; 
  Like til a leaf that fallis from a tree, 
Or til a reed ourblawin with the win. 
 
Twa gods guides me: the ane of tham is blin,         5
  Yea and a bairn brocht up in vanitie; 
  The next a wife ingenrit of the sea, 
And lichter nor a dauphin with her fin. 
 
Unhappy is the man for evermair 
  That tills the sand and sawis in the air;  10
  But twice unhappier is he, I lairn, 
That feidis in his hairt a mad desire, 
And follows on a woman throw the fire, 
  Led by a blind and teachit by a bairn.