| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diana | The Fifth Decade
Sonnet X. Prometheus for stealing living fire | | Henry Constable (1562–1613) |
| | | PROMETHEUS for stealing living fire | |
| From heaven’s king, was judged eternal death; | |
| In self-same flame, with unrelenting ire, | |
| Bound fast to Caucasus’ low foot beneath. | |
| So I, for stealing living beauty’s fire | 5 |
| Into my verse, that it may always live; | |
| And change his forms to shapes of my desire: | |
| Thou beauty’s Queen! self sentence like dost give! | |
| Bound to thy feet, in chains of love I lie; | |
| For to thine eyes, I never dare aspire: | 10 |
| And in thy beauty’s brightness do I fry, | |
| As poor PROMETHEUS in the scalding fire. | |
| Which tears maintain, as oil the lamp revives; | |
| Only my succour in thy favour lies. | | | | |
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