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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  LXX. My Muse may well grudge at my heavenly joy

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Astrophel and Stella

LXX. My Muse may well grudge at my heavenly joy

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

MY Muse may well grudge at my heavenly joy,

If still I force her in sad rhymes to creep;

She oft hath drunk my tears, now hopes t’enjoy

Nectar of mirth, since I, JOVE’s cup do keep.

Sonnets be not bound ’prentice to ANNOY:

Trebles sing high, as well as basses deep:

Grief, but LOVE’s winter livery is: the boy

Hath cheeks to smile as well as eyes to weep.

Come then, my Muse! show thou height of delight

In well-raised notes: my pen, the best it may

Shall paint out joy, though but in black and white.

“Cease! eager Muse!” “Peace! pen! For my sake, stay!”

I give you here my hand for truth of this:

“Wise silence is best music unto bliss.”