| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LXV. The doubt which ye misdeem, fair love, is vain | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | THE DOUBT which ye misdeem, fair love, is vain, | |
| That fondly fear to lose your liberty; | |
| When, losing one, two liberties ye gain, | |
| And make him bond that bondage erst did fly. | |
| Sweet be the bands, the which true love doth tie | 5 |
| Without constraint, or dread of any ill; | |
| The gentle bird feels no captivity | |
| Within her cage; but sings, and feeds her fill. | |
| There pride dare not approach, nor discord spill | |
| The league ’twixt them, that loyal love hath bound: | 10 |
| But simple truth, and mutual good-will, | |
| Seeks with sweet peace, to salve each other’s wound: | |
| There faith doth fearless dwell in brazen tower, | |
| And spotless pleasure builds her sacred bower. | | | | |
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