William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.
What Wight He LovedWilliam Browne (c. 1590c. 1645)
S
Harken then awhile to me;
And if such a woman move,
As I now shall versify,
Be assured, ’tis she or none
That I love, and love alone.
As she scorns the help of art;
In as many virtues dight
As e’er yet embraced a heart:
So much good so truly tried,
Some for less were deified.
To make known how much she hath;
And her anger flames no higher
Than may fitly sweeten wrath.
Full of pity as may be,
Though, perhaps, not so to me.
And her virtues grace her birth,
Lovely as all excellence,
Modest in her most of mirth
Likelihood enough to prove
Only worth could kindle love.
Such a one as I have sung,
Be she brown, or fair, or so
That she be but somewhile young,
Be assured, ’tis she, or none
That I love, and love alone.