Sir Philip Sidney. "Because I breathe not love to every one." Sonnet 54 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Astrophel and Stella: LIV
by Sir Philip Sidney

Because I breathe not love to every one,
Nor do not use set colours for to wear,
Nor nourish special locks of vowèd hair,
Nor give each speech a full point of a groan,
The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan
Of them which in their lips Love's standard bear,
"What, he!" say they of me; "now I dare swear
He cannot love; no, no, let him alone."
And think so still, so Stella know my mind!
Profess, indeed, I do not Cupid's art;
But you, fair maids, at length this true shall find,
That his right badge is worn but in the heart.
Dumb swans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove;
They love indeed who quake to say they love.

Source:
Sidney, Sir Philip. "Astrophel and Stella Sonnet 54."
Bourne, H. R. Fox. Sir Philip Sidney:
Type of English Chivalry in the Elizabethan Age.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1891. 247-248.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney