| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | To Aurora | | By William Alexander, Earl of Stirling (1567?–1640) |
| | | O IF 1 thou knew’st how thou thyself dost harm, | |
| And dost prejudge thy bliss, and spoil my rest; | |
| Then thou would’st melt the ice out of thy breast | |
| And thy relenting heart would kindly warm. | |
| O if thy pride did not our joys controul, | 5 |
| What world of loving wonders should’st thou see; | |
| For if I saw thee once transformed in me, | |
| Then in thy bosom would I pour my soul; | |
| Then all my thoughts should in thy visage shine, | |
| And if that ought mischanced thou should’st not moan | 10 |
| Nor bear the burthen of thy griefs alone; | |
| No, I would have my share in what were thine. | |
| And whilst we thus should make our sorrows one, | |
| This happy harmony would make them none. | |
| | | Note 1. Sonnet xxxiii. in Aurora, from the first collected Ed. of Stirling Poems, Glasgow, 1870. [back] | | |
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