| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XXI. Was it the work of nature or of art | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | WAS it the work of nature or of art, | |
| Which tempered so the feature of her face, | |
| That pride and meekness, mixed by equal part, | |
| Do both appear t’adorn her beauty’s grace? | |
| For with mild pleasance, which doth pride displace, | 5 |
| She to her love doth lookers’ eyes allure; | |
| And, with stern countenance, back again doth chase | |
| Their looser looks that stir up lusts impure; | |
| With such strange terms her eyes she doth inure, | |
| That, with one look, she doth my life dismay; | 10 |
| And with another doth it straight recure; | |
| Her smile me draws; her frown me drives away. | |
| Thus doth she train and teach me with her looks; | |
| Such art of eyes I never read in books! | | | | |
|
|
