| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LXXXIV. The world that cannot deem of worthy things | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | THE WORLD that cannot deem of worthy things, | |
| When I do praise her, say I do but flatter: | |
| So does the cuckoo, when the mavis sings, | |
| Begin his witless note apace to clatter. | |
| But they that skill not of so heavenly matter, | 5 |
| All that they know not envy or admire; | |
| Rather than envy, let them wonder at her, | |
| But not to deem of her desert aspire. | |
| Deep, in the closet of my parts entire, | |
| Her worth is written with a golden quill, | 10 |
| That me with heavenly fury doth inspire, | |
| And my glad mouth with her sweet praises fill: | |
| Which when as Fame in her shrill trump shall thunder, | |
| Let the world choose to envy or to wonder. | | | | |
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