Sonnet VI. Be naught dismayed that her unmoved mind

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

BE naught dismayed that her unmoved mind

Doth still persist in her rebellious pride:

Such love, not like to lusts of baser kind,

The harder won, the firmer will abide.

The dureful oak, whose sap is not yet dried,

Is long ere it conceive the kindling fire;

But, when it once doth burn, it doth divide

Great heat, and makes his flames to heaven aspire.

So hard it is to kindle new desire

In gentle breast, that shall endure for ever:

Deep is the wound, that dints the parts entire

With chaste affects that naught but death can sever;

Then think not long in taking little pain

To knit the knot, that ever shall remain.