| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Astrophel and Stella | | VII. When Nature made her chief work—Stella’s eyes | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | | WHEN Nature made her chief work—STELLA’s eyes; | |
| In colour black, why wrapt she beams so bright? | |
| Would she in beamy black, like painter wise, | |
| Frame daintiest lustre, mixed of shades and light? | |
| Or did she else that sober hue devise, | 5 |
| In object best to knit and strength our sight? | |
| Lest if no veil these brave gleams did disguise, | |
| They sun-like should more dazzle than delight. | |
| Or would she her miraculous power show? | |
| That whereas black seems beauty’s contrary; | 10 |
| She, even in black, doth make all beauties flow! | |
| But so and thus, she minding LOVE should be | |
| Placed ever there, gave him this mourning weed; | |
| To honour all their deaths, which for her bleed. | | | | |
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