Sir Philip Sidney. "When Nature made her chief work, Stella's eyes." Sonnet 7 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney

Astrophil and Stella: 7

When Nature made her chief work, Stella's eyes,
    In color black why wrapped she beams so bright?
    Would she in beamy black, like painter wise,
    Frame daintiest luster mixed of shades and light?
Or did she else that sober hue devise
    In object best to knit and strength our sight,
    Lest, if no veil these brave gleams did disguise,
    They, sunlike, should more dazzle than delight?
Or would she her miraculous power show,
    That, whereas black seems beauty's contrary,
    She even in black doth make all beauties flow?
Both so, and thus,—she, minding Love should be
Placed ever there, gave him this mourning weed
To honor all their deaths who for her bleed.

[AJ Notes:
l.13 him, them.
l.13 weed, garment.]

Source:
Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660.
J. William Hebel and Hoyt H. Hudson, eds.
New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1941. 108.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney


©2003 Anniina Jokinen