| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XI. Daily when I do seek and sue for peace | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | DAILY when I do seek and sue for peace, | |
| And hostages do offer for my truth; | |
| She, cruel warrior, doth herself address | |
| To battle, and the weary war renew’th; | |
| Ne will be moved with reason, or with ruth, | 5 |
| To grant small respite to my restless toil; | |
| But greedily her fell intent pursu’th, | |
| Of my poor life to make unpitied spoil. | |
| Yet my poor life, all sorrows to assoil, | |
| I would her yield, her wrath to pacify: | 10 |
| But then she seeks, with torment and turmoil, | |
| To force me live, and will not let me die. | |
| All pain hath end, and every war hath peace; | |
| But mine, no price nor prayer may surcease. | | | | |
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