Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Laura—Part III

XXVI. The heavens begin, with thunder, for to break

Robert Tofte (1561–1620)

THE HEAVENS begin, with thunder, for to break

The troubled air; and to the coloured fields,

The lightning for to spoil their pride doth threat.

Each thing unto the furious tempest yields.

And yet, methinks, within me I do hear

A gentle voice, hard at my heart, to say:

“Fear nothing, thou; but be of merry cheer!

Thou only safe, ’fore others all shalt stay.

To save thee from all hurt, thy shield shalt be

The shadow of the conquering Laural Tree.”