| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Parthenophil and Parthenophe | | Elegy I. Why did the milk, which first Alcides nourished | | Barnabe Barnes (1569?–1609) |
| | | WHY did the milk, which first ALCIDES nourished, | |
| Ingend’ring with CYBELE, breed the lily? | |
| Th’ Assyrian hunter’s blood, why hath it flourished | |
| The rose with red? Why did the daffadilly | |
| Spring from NARCISSUS’ self-conceited love? | 5 |
| Why did great JOVE, for the Pœneian cow, | |
| Devise the marble coloured violet? | |
| Or what for PHŒBUS’ love, from mountains hilly | |
| Did hyacinth to rosy blushes move? | |
| Since my sweet Mistress, under PHŒBUS’ brow, | 10 |
| JUNO’s and fair ADONIS’ flowers hath set, | |
| Adown her neck, NARCISSUS’s gold doth bow, | |
| IO’s grey violets in her crystal lights | |
| Th’Œbalian boy’s complexion still alights | |
| Upon her hyacinthine lips, like ruby. | 15 |
| And with love’s purest sanguine, CUPID writes | |
| The praise of beauty, through her veins which blue be | |
| Conducted through love’s sluice, to thy face rosy, | |
| Where doves and redbreasts sit for VENUS’ rights. | |
| In sign that I to Thee, will ever true be; | 20 |
| The rose and lilies shall adorn my posy! | |
| The violets and hyacinths shall knit | |
| With daffodil, which shall embellish it! | |
| Such heavenly flowers, in earthly posies few be! | | | | |
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