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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  XL. As good to write, as for to lie and groan

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Astrophel and Stella

XL. As good to write, as for to lie and groan

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

AS good to write, as for to lie and groan.

O STELLA dear! how much thy power hath wrought!

Thou hast my mind, none of the basest, brought

My still-kept course, while others sleep, to moan.

Alas, if from the height of Virtue’s throne,

Thou canst vouchsafe the influence of a thought

Upon a wretch, that long thy grace hath sought;

Weigh then, how I, by thee, am overthrown!

And then, think thus, “Although thy beauty be

Made manifest by such a victory;

Yet noblest conquerors do wracks avoid.”

Since then thou hast so far subduèd me

That in my heart I offer still to thee.

O do not let thy temple be destroyed!