LI. Pardon mine ears! both I and they do pray. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). Astrophel and Stella. Seccombe and Arber, comps. 1904. Elizabethan Sonnets

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Astrophel and Stella

LI. Pardon mine ears! both I and they do pray

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)


PARDON mine ears! both I and they do pray,
So may your tongue still fluently proceed
To them, that do such entertainment need:
So may you still have somewhat new to say.
On silly me do not the burden lay	5
Of all the grave conceits, your brain doth breed:
But find some HERCULES to bear (instead
Of ATLAS tired) your wisdom’s heavenly sway.
For me, while you discourse of courtly tides;
Of cunning fishers in most troubled streams;	10
Of straying ways, when valiant error guides:
Meanwhile, my heart confers with STELLA’s beams,
And is even irkt that so sweet comedy
By such unsuited speech, should hindered be.