| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LXXVI. Fair bosom! fraught with virtue’s richest treasure | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | FAIR bosom! fraught with virtue’s richest treasure | |
| The nest of love, the lodging of delight, | |
| The bower of bliss, the paradise of pleasure, | |
| The sacred harbour of that heavenly spright; | |
| How was I ravish’d with your lovely sight, | 5 |
| And my frail thoughts too rashly led astray! | |
| Whiles diving deep through amorous insight, | |
| On the sweet spoil of beauty they did prey; | |
| And twixt her paps (like early fruit in May, | |
| Whose harvest seemed to hasten now apace), | 10 |
| They loosely did their wanton wings display, | |
| And there to rest themselves did boldly place. | |
| Sweet thoughts! I envy your so happy rest, | |
| Which oft I wish’d, yet never was so blest. | | | | |
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