| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | XCIII. O fate! O fault! O curse! child of my bliss! | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | O FATE! O fault! O curse! child of my bliss! | |
| What sobs can give words grace my grief to show? | |
| What ink is black enough to paint my woe? | |
| Through me, wretched me! even STELLA vexèd is. | |
| Yet TRUTH—if caitiff’s breath may call thee!—this | 5 |
| Witness with me, that my foul stumbling so | |
| From carelessness did in no manner grow; | |
| But wit confused with too much care, did miss. | |
| And do I then myself this vain ’scuse give? | |
| I have (live I, and know this!) harmèd thee! | 10 |
| Though worlds quite me, shall I me self forgive? | |
| Only with pains, my pains thus eased be, | |
| That all thy hurts in my heart’s rack I read: | |
| I cry thy sighs, my Dear! thy tears I bleed. | | | | |
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