Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
LiciaSonnet XXXVIII. Fair matchless Nymph, respect but what I crave!
Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)F
My thoughts are true, and honour is my love.
I fainting die, whom yet a smile might save.
You gave the wound, and can the hurt remove.
Those eyes, like stars that twinkle in the night;
And cheeks, like rubies pale in lilies dyed;
Those ebon [ivory] hands that darting have such might:
That in my soul, my love and life divide.
Accept the Passions of a man possesst!
Let love be loved, and grant me leave to live!
Disperse those clouds that darkened have my rest;
And let your heaven, a sunlike smile but give!
Then shall I praise that heaven for such a sun;
That saved my life, when as my grief begun.