Sir Philip Sidney. "I might, unhappy word, oh me, I might." Sonnet 33 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet XXXIII

I might—unhappy word!—oh me, I might,
    And then would not, or could not, see my bliss;
    Till now, wrapped in a most infernal night,
    I find how heav'nly day, wretch, I did miss.
Heart, rent thyself, thou dost thyself but right;
    No lovely Paris made thy Helen his,
    No force, no fraud, robbed thee of thy delight,
    Nor fortune of thy fortune author is;
But to myself myself did give the blow,
    While too much wit, forsooth, so troubled me
    That I respects for both our sakes must show,
And yet could not by rising morn foresee
    How fair a day was near;  oh, punished eyes,
    That I had been more foolish—or more wise!

Source:
Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660.
J. William Hebel and Hoyt H. Hudson, Eds.
New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1941. 111.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney