| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XLIII. Shall I then silent be, or shall I speak? | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | SHALL I then silent be, or shall I speak? | |
| And, if I speak, her wrath renew I shall; | |
| And, if I silent be, my heart will break, | |
| Or choked be with overflowing gall. | |
| What tyranny is this, both my heart to thrall, | 5 |
| And eke my tongue with proud restraint to tie; | |
| That neither I may speak nor think at all, | |
| But like a stupid stock in silence die! | |
| Yet I my heart with silence secretly | |
| Will teach to speak, and my just cause to plead; | 10 |
| And eke mine eyes, with meek humility, | |
| Love-learned letters to her eyes to read; | |
| Which her deep wit, that true heart’s thought can spell, | |
| Will soon conceive, and learn to construe well. | | | | |
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