| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Doubt Which Ye Misdeem | | By Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | THE DOUBT which ye misdeem, fair love, is vain, | |
| That fondly fear to lose your liberty; | |
| When, losing one, two liberties ye gain, | |
| And make him bond that bondage erst did fly. | |
| Sweet be the bands, the which true love doth tie, | 5 |
| Without constraint, or dread of any ill: | |
| The gentle bird feels no captivity | |
| Within her cage, but sings, and feeds her fill. | |
| There pride dare not approach, nor discord spill | |
| The league ’twixt them that loyal love hath bound; | 10 |
| But simple truth, and mutual good will, | |
| Seeks with sweet peace to salve each other’s wound: | |
| There Faith doth fearless dwell in brazen tower, | |
| And spotless Pleasure builds her sacred bower. | | | | |
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