| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Sonnet LXVII. If Cupid keep his quiver in thine eye | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | IF CUPID keep his quiver in thine eye, | |
| And shoot at over-daring gazers’ hearts! | |
| Alas, why be not men afraid! and fly | |
| As from MEDUSA’s, doubting after smarts? | |
| Ah, when he draws his string, none sees his bow! | 5 |
| Nor hears his golden-feathered arrows sing! | |
| Ay me! till it be shot, no man doth know; | |
| Until his heart be prickèd with the sting. | |
| Like semblance bears the musket in the field: | |
| It hits, and kills unseen! till unawares, | 10 |
| To death, the wounded man his body yield. | |
| And thus a peasant, CÆSAR’s glory dares. | |
| This difference left ’twixt MARS his field, and LOVE’s; | |
| That CUPID’s soldier shot, more torture proves! | | | | |
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