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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  LVIII. Doubt there hath been—when, with his golden chain

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Astrophel and Stella

LVIII. Doubt there hath been—when, with his golden chain

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

DOUBT there hath been—when, with his golden chain,

The Orator so far men’s hearts doth bind;

That no pace else their guided steps can find,

But as he them more short or slack doth rein—

Whether with words, this sovereignty he gain;

Clothed with fine tropes, with strongest reasons lined:

Or else pronouncing grace, wherewith his mind

Prints his own lively form in rudest brain?

Now judge by this. In piercing phrases, late,

The anatomy of all my woes I wrote.

STELLA’s sweet breath the same to me did read.

O voice! O face! maugre my speeches’ might

Which wooed woe: most ravishing delight,

Even those sad words, even in sad me, did breed.