| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XXXVIII. Arion, when, through tempest’s cruel wrack | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | ARION, when, through tempest’s cruel wrack, | |
| He forth was thrown into the greedy seas; | |
| Through the sweet music, which his harp did make, | |
| Allur’d a dolphin him from death to ease. | |
| But my rude music, which was wont to please | 5 |
| Some dainty ears, cannot, with any skill, | |
| The dreadful tempest of her wrath appease, | |
| Nor move the dolphin from her stubborn will, | |
| But in her pride she doth perséver still, | |
| All careless how my life for her decays: | 10 |
| Yet with one word she can it save or spill. | |
| To spill were pity, but to save were praise! | |
| Choose rather to be praised for doing good, | |
| Than to be blam’d for spilling guiltless blood. | | | | |
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