Sir Philip Sidney. "Oh, joy too high for my low style to show!" Sonnet 69 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet LXIX

Oh, joy too high for my low style to show!
    Oh, bliss fit for a nobler state than me!
    Envy, put out thine eyes, lest thou do see
    What oceans of delight in me do flow!
My friend, that oft saw, through all masks, my woe,
    Come, come, and let me pour myself on thee.
    Gone is the winter of my misery!
    My spring appears, oh see what here doth grow;
For Stella hath, with words where faith doth shine,
    Of her high heart giv'n me the monarchy;
    I, I, oh I may say that she is mine!
And though she give but thus conditionly
    This realm of bliss, while virtuous course I take,
    No kings be crowned but they some covenants make.

Source:
Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660.
J. William Hebel and Hoyt H. Hudson, Eds.
New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1941. 116.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney