| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XVII. The glorious portrait of that Angel’s face | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | THE GLORIOUS portrait of that Angel’s face, | |
| Made to amaze weak men’s confused skill, | |
| And this world’s worthless glory to embase, | |
| What pen, what pencil, can express her fill? | |
| For, though he colours could devise at will, | 5 |
| And eke his learned hand at pleasure guide, | |
| Lest, trembling, it his workmanship should spill; | |
| Yet many wondrous things there are beside: | |
| The sweet eye-glances, that like arrows glide; | |
| The charming smiles, that rob sense from the heart; | 10 |
| The lovely pleasance; and the lofty pride; | |
| Cannot expressed be by any art. | |
| A greater craftsman’s hand thereto doth need, | |
| That can express the life of things indeed. | | | | |
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