Sir Philip Sidney. "Desire, though thou my old companion art." Sonnet 87 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney.

Astrophel and Stella

LXXXVII

     When I was forc'd from Stella, ever dear,
Stella! food of my thoughts, heart of my heart,
     Stella! whose eyes make all my tempests clear,
By iron laws of duty to depart:
Alas! I found that she, with me, did smart;
     I saw that tears did in her eyes appear;
I saw that sighs her sweetest lips did part,
     And her sad words my saddest sense did hear:
For me, I wept to see pearls scatter'd so,
I sigh'd her sighs, and wailed for her woe,
     Yet swam in joy, such love in her was seen:
Thus, while th' effect most bitter was to me,
And nothing than the cause more sweet could be,
     I had been vex'd, if vex'd I had not been.

Source:
The Miscellaneous Workd of Sir Philip Sidney, knt.
William Gray, ed.
Boston: T. O. H. P. Burnham, 1860. 194.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney