| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Delia | | Sonnet XVII. Why should I sing in verse? Why should I frame | | Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) |
| | [First printed in this edition.]
WHY should I sing in verse? Why should I frame | |
| These sad neglected notes, for her dear sake? | |
| Why should I offer up unto her name, | |
| The sweetest sacrifice my youth can make? | |
| Why should I strive to make her live for ever, | 5 |
| That never deigns to give me joy to live? | |
| Why should m’afflicted Muse so much endeavour | |
| Such honour, unto cruelty to give? | |
| If her defects have purchased her this fame; | |
| What should her virtues do? her smiles? her love? | 10 |
| If this, her worst; how should her best inflame? | |
| What passions would her milder favours move? | |
| Favours, I think, would sense quite overcome; | |
| And that makes happy lovers ever dumb. | | | | |
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