| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Sonnets and Poetical Translations | | XXXIII. Thou blind man’s mark! thou fool’s self-chosen snare! | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | THOU blind man’s mark! thou fool’s self-chosen snare! | |
| Fond fancy’s scum! and dregs of scattered thought! | |
| Band of all evils! cradle of causeless care! | |
| Thou web of will! whose end is never wrought. | |
| DESIRE! DESIRE! I have too dearly bought, | 5 |
| With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware! | |
| Too long! too long asleep thou hast me brought! | |
| Who should my mind to higher things prepare; | |
| But yet in vain, thou hast my ruin sought! | |
| In vain, thou mad’st me to vain things aspire! | 10 |
| In vain, thou kindlest all thy smoky fire! | |
| For virtue hath this better lesson taught. | |
| Within myself, to seek my only hire: | |
| Desiring nought, but how to kill DESIRE. | | | | |
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