| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XX. In vain I seek and sue to her for grace | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | IN vain I seek and sue to her for grace, | |
| And do mine humbled heart before her pour; | |
| The whiles her foot she in my neck doth place, | |
| And tread my life down in the lowly flower. | |
| And yet the lion that is lord of power, | 5 |
| And reigneth over every beast in field, | |
| In his most pride disdaineth to devour | |
| The silly lamb that to his might doth yield. | |
| But she, more cruel, and more savage wild, | |
| Than either lion or the lioness, | 10 |
| Shames not to be with guiltless blood defiled, | |
| But taketh glory in her cruelness. | |
| Fairer than fairest! let none ever say, | |
| That ye were blooded in a yielded prey. | | | | |
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