| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | What Guile Is This? | | By Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | WHAT guile is this, that those her golden tresses | |
| She doth attire under a net of gold; | |
| And with sly skill so cunningly them dresses, | |
| That which is gold or hair may scarce be told? | |
| Is it that men’s frail eyes, which gaze too bold, | 5 |
| She may entangle in that golden snare; | |
| And, being caught, may craftily enfold | |
| Their weaker hearts, which are not well aware? | |
| Take heed, therefore, mine eyes, how ye do stare | |
| Henceforth too rashly on that guileful net, | 10 |
| In which, if ever ye entrappèd are, | |
| Out of her bands ye by no means shall get. | |
| Fondness it were for any, being free, | |
| To covert fetters, though they golden be. | | | | |
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