Amoretti, Sonnet XXI
Amoretti, Sonnet XXI
Edmund Spenser
WAS it the worke of nature or of Art?
which tempred so the feature of her face:
that pride and meeknesse mixt by equall part,
doe both appeare t'adorne her beauties grace.
For with mild pleasance, which doth pride displace,
she to her loue doth lookers eyes allure:
& with sterne countenaunce back again doth chace
their looser lookes that stir vp lustes impure,
With such strange termes her eyes she doth inure,
that with one looke she doth my life dismay:
& with another doth it streight recure,
her smile me drawes, her frowne me driues away.
Thus doth she traine and teach me with her lookes,
such art of eyes I neuer read in bookes.
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Complete 89-sonnet sequence. Renascence Editions transcription of Alexander Grosart’s 1882 edition.
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