| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LXXII. Oft, when my spirit doth spread her bolder wings | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | OFT, when my spirit doth spread her bolder wings, | |
| In mind to mount up to the purest sky; | |
| It down is weighed with thought of earthly things, | |
| And clogged with burden of mortality; | |
| Where, when that sovereign beauty it doth spy, | 5 |
| Resembling heaven’s glory in her light, | |
| Drawn with sweet pleasure’s bait, it back doth fly, | |
| And unto heaven forgets her former flight. | |
| There my frail fancy, fed with full delight, | |
| Doth bathe in bliss, and mantleth most at ease; | 10 |
| Ne thinks of other heaven, but how it might | |
| Her heart’s desire with most contentment please. | |
| Heart need not wish none other happiness, | |
| But here on earth to have such heaven’s bliss. | | | | |
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