Astrophel and Stella Sonnet #71 by Sir Philip Sidney

Posted on the 18 February 2012 by Bvulcanius @BVulcanius

Who will in fairest book of Nature know

How Virtue may best lodged in beauty be,

Let him learn of Love to read in thee,

Stella, those fair lines, which true goodness show.

There shall he find all vices’ overthrow,

Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty

Of reason, from whose light those night-birds fly;

That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so.

And not content to be Perfection’s heir

Thyself, dost strive all minds that way to move,

Who mark in thee what is in thee most fair.

So while thy beauty draws the heart to love,

As fast thy Virtue bends that love to good;

“But, ah,” Desire still cries, “give me some food.”

Image by Sayantan Halder

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