Sir Philip Sidney. "Muses, I oft invoked your holy aid." Sonnet 55 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet LV

Muses, I oft invoked your holy aid,
    With choicest flowers my speech t' engarland so
    That it, despised in true but naked show,
    Might win some grace in your sweet grace arrayed;
And oft whole troops of saddest words I stayed,
    Striving abroad a-foraging to go,
    Until by your inspiring I might know
    How their black banner might be best displayed.
But now I mean no more your help to try,
    Nor other sug'ring of my speech to prove,
    But on her name incessantly to cry;
For let me but name her whom I do love,
    So sweet sounds straight mine ear and heart do hit,
    That I well find no eloquence like it.

Source:
Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660.
J. William Hebel and Hoyt H. Hudson, Eds.
New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1941. 114.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney