| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XXIV. When I behold that beauty’s wonderment | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | WHEN I behold that beauty’s wonderment, | |
| And rare perfection of each goodly part; | |
| Of nature’s skill the only complement; | |
| I honour and admire the Maker’s art. | |
| But when I feel the bitter, baleful smart, | 5 |
| Which her fair eyes unwares do work in me, | |
| That death out of their shiny beams do dart; | |
| I think that I a new Pandora see, | |
| Whom all the Gods in council did agree | |
| Into this sinful world from heaven to send; | 10 |
| That she to wicked men a scourge should be, | |
| For all their faults with which they did offend. | |
| But, since ye are my scourge, I will entreat, | |
| That for my faults ye will me gently beat. | | | | |
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