| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Diella | | Sonnet VI. Mirror of Beauty! Nature’s fairest Child! | | Richard Linche (fl. 1596–1601) |
| | | MIRROR of Beauty! Nature’s fairest Child! | |
| Empress of Love! my heart’s high-prizèd jewel! | |
| Learn of the Dove, to love and to be mild! | |
| be not to him that honours thee, so cruel! | |
| But as the Asp, deaf, angry, nothing meek; | 5 |
| thou will not listen to my doleful plaint! | |
| Nor once wilt look on my discoloured cheek! | |
| which wanting blood, causeth me oft to faint. | |
| Then, silent will I be! if that will please thee: | |
| yet so, as in my stead, each plain, each hill | 10 |
| Shall echo forth my grief! and thereby ease me; | |
| for I myself, of speaking have my fill. | |
| If plains and hills be silent in my pain; | |
| My death shall speak! and tell what I sustain! | | | | |
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