| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Delia | | Sonnet XLII. Read in my face, a volume of despairs! | | Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) |
| | | READ in my face, a volume of despairs! | |
| The wailing Iliads of my tragic woe; | |
| Drawn with my blood, and printed with my cares, | |
| Wrought by her hand that I have honoured so. | |
| Who, whilst I burn, she sings at my soul’s wrack, | 5 |
| Looking aloft from turret of her pride: | |
| There, my Soul’s Tyrant ’joys her in the sack | |
| Of her own seat; whereof I made her guide. | |
| There do these smokes, that from affliction rise, | |
| Serve as an incense to a cruel Dame. | 10 |
| A sacrifice thrice-grateful to her eyes, | |
| Because their power serves to exact the same. | |
| Thus ruins She, to satisfy her will, | |
| The Temple, where her name was honoured still. | | | | |
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