| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | LXXIV. I never drank of Aganippe’s well | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | I NEVER drank of Aganippe’s well; | |
| Nor never did in shade of Tempe sit: | |
| And Muses scorn with vulgar brains to dwell. | |
| Poor layman, I! for sacred rites unfit. | |
| Some do, I hear, of poets’ fury tell; | 5 |
| But (GOD wot) wot not what they mean by it: | |
| And this I swear by blackest brook of hell; | |
| I am no pick-purse of another’s wit. | |
| How falls it then, that with so smooth an ease | |
| My thoughts I speak? and what I speak doth flow | 10 |
| In verse? and that my verse best wits doth please? | |
| Guess we the cause. What is it thus? Fie, no! | |
| Or so? Much less! How then? Sure thus it is. | |
| My lips are sweet, inspired with STELLA’s kiss. | | | | |
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