Verse > Anthologies > Elizabethan Sonnets > Amoretti and Epithalamion
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Seccombe and Arber, comps.  Elizabethan Sonnets.  1904.
 
Amoretti and Epithalamion
Sonnet LXXXIII. Let not one spark of filthy lustful fire
Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
 
          [In all early editions, this sonnet is numbered LXXXIV., and the succeeding poems are numbered LXXXV. et seq. But the sonnet originally headed LXXXIII. is a repetition of the sonnet already printed as number XXXV. That sonnet is not repeated here, and the numbering is altered accordingly.]

LET not one spark of filthy lustful fire
Break out, that may her sacred peace molest;
Ne one light glance of sensual desire
Attempt to work her gentle mind’s unrest:
But pure affections breed in spotless breast,        5
And modest thoughts breath’d from well-tempered sprites,
Go visit her in her chaste bower of rest
Accompanied with angel-like delights.
There fill yourself with those most joyous sights,
The which myself could never yet attain:        10
But speak no word to her of these sad plights,
Which her too constant stiffness doth constrain.
  Only behold her rare perfection,
  And bless your fortune’s fair election.
 
 
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