| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 38. Sitting alone, Love bids me go and write! | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1594 (No. 31), and in all later editions.] |
|
SITTING alone, Love bids me go and write! | |
| Reason plucks back, commanding me to stay! | |
| Boasting that She doth still direct the way, | |
| Or else Love were unable to indite. | |
| Love growing angry, vexèd at the spleen, | 5 |
| And scorning Reason’s maimèd argument, | |
| Straight taxeth Reason, wanting to invent | |
| Where She with Love conversing hath not been. | |
| Reason reproachèd with this coy disdain, | |
| Despiteth Love, and laugheth at her folly: | 10 |
| And Love contemning Reason’s reason wholly, | |
| Thought it in weight too light by many a grain. | |
| Reason put back, doth out of sight remove; | |
| And Love alone picks reason out of love. | | | |
|
|
|
