LXI. Oft with true sighs, oft with uncallèd tears

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

OFT with true sighs, oft with uncallèd tears,

Now with slow words, now with dumb eloquence;

I STELLA’s eyes assailed, invade her ears:

But this, at last, is her sweet breathed defence.

“That who indeed infelt affection bears,

So captives to his saint both soul and sense;

That wholly hers, all selfness he forbears:

Thence his desires he learns, his life’s course thence.”

Now since her chaste mind hates this love in me:

With chastened mind, I needs must show that she

Shall quickly me from what she hates, remove.

O Doctor CUPID! thou for me, reply!

Driven else to grant by angel’s sophistry,

That I love not, without I leave to love.