| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 56. When like an Eaglet, I first found my love | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1594 (No. 3), and in all later editions.]
An allusion to the Eaglets |
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WHEN like an Eaglet, I first found my love, | |
| For that the virtue I thereof would know, | |
| Upon the nest I set it forth, to prove | |
| If it were of that kingly kind or no: | |
| But it no sooner saw my sun appear, | 5 |
| But on her rays with open eyes it stood; | |
| To shew that I had hatched it for the air, | |
| And rightly came from that brave-mounting brood. | |
| And when the plumes were sunned with sweet Desire, | |
| To prove the pinions, it ascends the skies! | 10 |
| Do what I could, it needsly would aspire | |
| To my soul’s sun, those two celestial Eyes. | |
| Thus from my breast, where it was bred alone, | |
| It after thee is, like an Eaglet flown. | | | |
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