| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | And Yet I Cannot Reprehend the Flight | | By Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) |
| | | AND yet I cannot reprehend the flight | |
| Or blame th’ attempt presuming so to soar; | |
| The mounting venture for a high delight | |
| Did make the honour of the fall the more. | |
| For who gets wealth, that puts not from the shore? | 5 |
| Danger hath honour, great designs their fame; | |
| Glory doth follow, courage goes before; | |
| And though th’ event oft answers not the same— | |
| Suffice that high attempts have never shame. | |
| The mean observer, whom base safety keeps, | 10 |
| Lives without honour, dies without a name, | |
| And in eternal darkness ever sleeps.— | |
| And therefore, Delia, ’tis to me no blot | |
| To have attempted, tho’ attained thee not. | | | | |
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