| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | LXXI. Who will in fairest book of Nature know | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | WHO will in fairest book of Nature know | |
| How virtue may best lodged in beauty be; | |
| Let him but learn of love to read in thee! | |
| STELLA! those fair lines which true goodness show. | |
| There, shall he find all vices’ overthrow; | 5 |
| Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty | |
| Of REASON: from whose light those night birds fly. | |
| That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so. | |
| And not content to be perfection’s heir, | |
| Thyself dost strive all minds that way to move; | 10 |
| Who mark in thee, what is in thee most fair: | |
| So while thy beauty draws the heart to love, | |
| As fast thy virtue bends that love to good. | |
| But ah! DESIRE still cries, “Give me some food!” | | | | |
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