| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XXXI. Ah! why hath nature to so hard a heart | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | AH! why hath nature to so hard a heart | |
| Given so goodly gifts of beauty’s grace! | |
| Whose pride depraves each other better part, | |
| And all those precious ornaments deface. | |
| Sith to all other beasts of bloody race | 5 |
| A dreadful countenance she given hath; | |
| That with their terror all the rest may chase, | |
| And warn to shun the danger of their wrath. | |
| But my proud one doth work the greater scathe, | |
| Through sweet allurement of her lovely hue; | 10 |
| That she the better may in bloody bath | |
| Of such poor thralls her cruel hands embrue. | |
| But, did she know how ill these two accord, | |
| Such cruelty she would have soon abhor’d. | | | | |
|
|
