Michael Drayton. Idea. Sonnet XLII.

FROM

I d e a.

by Michael Drayton

XLII.

SOME men there be which like my method well
And much commend the strangeness of my vein ;
Some say I have a passing pleasing strain ;
Some say that im my humour I excel ;
Some, who not kindly relish my conceit,
They say, as poets do, I use to feign,
And in bare words paint out my passion's pain.
Thus sundry men their sundry words repeat ;
I pass not, I, how men affected be,
Nor who commends or discommends my verse ;
It pleaseth me, if I my woes rehearse,
And in my lines if she my love may see.
Only my comfort still consists in this,
Writing her praise I cannot write amiss.

Source:
Drayton, Michael. Idea.
Daniel's Delia and Drayton's Idea. Arundell Esdaile, Ed.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1908. 109.

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