| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | LXXXVII. When I was forced from Stella ever dear | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | WHEN I was forced from STELLA ever dear— | |
| STELLA! food of my thoughts, heart of my heart; | |
| STELLA! whose eyes make all my tempests clear— | |
| By iron laws of duty to depart: | |
| Alas, I found that she with me did smart; | 5 |
| I saw that tears did in her eyes appear; | |
| I saw that sighs, her sweetest lips did part; | |
| And her sad words, my saddest sense did hear. | |
| For me, I wept to see pearls scattered so; | |
| I sighed her sighs; and wailèd for her woe: | 10 |
| Yet swam in joy; such love in her was seen. | |
| Thus while th’effect most bitter was to me, | |
| And nothing than the cause more sweet could be; | |
| I had been vext, if vext I had not been. | | | | |
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