Sir Philip Sidney. "Stella, think not that I by verse seek fame." Sonnet 90 from "Astrophil and Stella."

Sir Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet XC

Stella, think not that I by verse seek fame,
    Who seek, who hope, who love, who live but thee;
    Thine eyes my pride, thy lips mine history;
    If thou praise not, all other praise is shame.
Nor so ambitious am I as to frame
    A nest for my young praise in laurel tree;
    In truth, I swear I wish not there should be
    Graved in mine epitaph a poet's name.
Ne, if I would, I could just title make,
    That any laud to me thereof should grow,
    Without my plumes from others' wings I take;
For nothing from my wit or will doth flow,
    Since all my words thy beauty doth endite,
    And love doth hold my hand and makes me write.

Source:
Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660.
J. William Hebel and Hoyt H. Hudson, Eds.
New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1941. 117.

to Works of Sir Philip Sidney