Samuel Daniel. Delia, Sonnet 17. (poem)

From
Delia
by Samuel Daniel

XVII
Why should I sing in verse, why should I frame
These sad neglected notes for her dear sake ?
Why should I offer up unto her name
The sweetest sacrifice my youth can make ?
Why should I strive to make her live for ever,
That never deigns to give me joy to live ?
Why should my afflicted Muse so much endeavour
Such honour unto cruelty to give?
If her defects have purchased her this fame,
What should her virtues do, her smiles, her love ?
If this her worst, how should her best inflame ?
What passions would her milder favours move ?
Favours, I think, would sense quite overcome,
And that makes happy lovers ever dumb.

1594

Source:
Esdaile, Arundell, Ed. Daniel's Delia and Drayton's Idea.
London: Chatto & Windus : Publishers, 1908. 17.

to Works of Samuel Daniel