| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | L. Stella! the fulness of my thoughts of thee | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | STELLA! the fulness of my thoughts of thee | |
| Cannot be stayed within my panting breast; | |
| But they do swell and struggle forth of me | |
| Till that in words, thy figure be exprest. | |
| And yet as soon as they so formèd be, | 5 |
| According to my lord LOVE’s own behest: | |
| With sad eyes, I their weak proportion see, | |
| To portrait that which in this world is best. | |
| So that I cannot choose but write my mind; | |
| And cannot choose but put out what I write; | 10 |
| While these poor babes their death in birth do find. | |
| And now my pen, these lines had dashed quite, | |
| But that they stopt his fury from the same; | |
| Because their forefront bare sweet STELLA’s name. | | | | |
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