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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  To Licia, the wise, kind, virtuous, and fair

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Licia

To Licia, the wise, kind, virtuous, and fair

Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)

BRIGHT matchless Star, the honour of the sky!

From whose clear shine heaven’s vault hath all his light.

I send these Poems to your graceful eye.

Do you but take them, and they have their right.

I build besides a Temple to your name,

Wherein my thoughts shall daily sing your praise;

And will erect an Altar for the same,

Which shall, your virtues and your honour raise.

But heaven, the Temple of your honour is;

Whose brazen tops your worthy self made proud:

The ground an Altar, base for such a bliss,

With pity torn, because I sighed so loud.

And since my skill no worship can impart;

Make you an incense of my loving heart!