Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599). I. To His Sonnets, on Sending Them to His Mistress. Hunt and Lee, comps. 1867. The Book of the Sonnet

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

I. To His Sonnets, on Sending Them to His Mistress

By Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)


HAPPY, 1 ye leaves! when as those lily hands
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might
Shall handle you, and hold in love’s soft bands,
Like captives trembling at the victor’s sight;
And happy lines! on which, with starry light,	5
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,
And read the sorrows of my dying spright
Written with tears in heart’s close-bleeding book;
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook
Of Helicon, whence she derivéd is;—	10
When ye behold that angel’s blessed look,
My soul’s long-lackéd food, my heaven’s bliss,
Leaves, lines, and rhymes, seek her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none. 2

Note 1. For other sonnets of this great poet see the Introductory Essay. [back]

Note 2. A sonnet like this is worth extracting, were it only for the sake of the beautiful and affecting line—

“Written with tears in heart’s close-bleeding book”;—

an idea imitated in a like spirit by one of our old dramatists,—

“Within the red-leaved tablets of the heart.”