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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  LXXXV. I see the house! My heart! thyself contain!

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Astrophel and Stella

LXXXV. I see the house! My heart! thyself contain!

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

I SEE the house! My heart! thyself contain!

Beware full sails drown not thy tottering barge!

Lest joy—by Nature apt, spirits to enlarge—

Thee to thy wrack, beyond thy limits strain.

Nor do like lords, whose weak confusèd brain,

Not ’pointing to fit folks each undercharge;

While every office themselves will discharge,

With doing all, leave nothing done but pain:

But give apt servants their due place! Let eyes

See Beauty’s total sum summed in her face!

Let ears hear speech, which wit to wonder ties!

Let breath suck up those sweets! Let arms embrace

The globe of weal! Lips, love’s indentures make!

Thou but of all, the Kingly tribute take!