| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Sonnets and Poetical Translations | | XXI. If I could think how these my thoughts to leave | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | IF I could think how these my thoughts to leave; | |
| Or thinking still my thoughts might have good end: | |
| If rebel sense would reason’s law receive; | |
| Or reason foiled would not in vain contend: | |
| Then might I think what thoughts were best to think; | 5 |
| Then might I wisely swim, or gladly sink. | |
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| If either you would change your cruel heart; | |
| Or cruel still, time did your beauty stain; | |
| If from my soul, this love would once depart; | |
| Or for my love, some love I might obtain: | 10 |
| Then might I hope a change or ease of mind; | |
| By your good help, or in myself to find. | |
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| But since my thoughts in thinking still are spent, | |
| With reason’s strife, by sense’s overthrow; | |
| You fairer still, and still more cruel bent; | 15 |
| I loving still a love, that loveth none: | |
| I yield and strive; I kiss and curse the pain, | |
| Thought, reason, sense, time, you and I maintain. | | | | |
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