| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XIV. Return again, my forces late dismayed | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | RETURN again, my forces late dismayed, | |
| Unto the siege by you abandon’d quite. | |
| Great shame it is to leave, like one afraid, | |
| So fair a piece, for one repulse so light. | |
| ’Gainst such strong castles needeth greater might | 5 |
| Than those small forts which ye were wont belay: | |
| Such haughty minds, enur’d to hardy fight, | |
| Disdain to yield unto the first assay. | |
| Bring therefore all the forces that ye may, | |
| And lay incessant battery to her heart; | 10 |
| Plaints, prayers, vows, ruth, sorrow, and dismay; | |
| Those engines can the proudest love convert: | |
| And, if those fail, fall down and die before her; | |
| So dying live, and living do adore her. | | | | |
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