| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | XXV. The wisest scholar of the wight most wise | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | THE WISEST scholar of the wight most wise, | |
| By PHŒBUS’ doom, with sugared sentence says: | |
| “That virtue, if it once met with our eyes, | |
| Strange flames of love it in our souls would raise: | |
| But for that man, with pain this truth descries, | 5 |
| Whiles he each thing in sense’s balance weighs: | |
| And so nor will, nor can behold those skies, | |
| Which inward sun to heroic minds displays.” | |
| Virtue, of late, with virtuous care to stir | |
| Love of herself, takes STELLA’s shape; that she | 10 |
| To mortal eyes might sweetly shine in her. | |
| It is most true. For since I her did see, | |
| Virtue’s great beauty in that face I prove, | |
| And find th’effect: for I do burn in love. | | | | |
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