| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LVI. Fair ye be sure, but cruel and unkind | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | FAIR ye be sure, but cruel and unkind, | |
| As is a tiger, that with greediness | |
| Hunts after blood; when he by chance doth find | |
| A feeble beast, doth felly him oppress. | |
| Fair be ye sure, but proud and pitiless, | 5 |
| As is a storm, that all things doth prostrate; | |
| Finding a tree alone all comfortless, | |
| Beats on it strongly, it to ruinate. | |
| Fair be ye sure, but hard and obstinate, | |
| As is a rock amidst the raging floods; | 10 |
| ’Gainst which, a ship, of succour desolate, | |
| Doth suffer wreck both of herself and goods. | |
| That ship, that tree, and that same beast, am I, | |
| Whom ye do wreck, do ruin, and destroy. | | | | |
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