Sonnet XLIII. My Delia hath the waters of mine eyes

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

[First printed, with verbal differences, in Sonnets after Sidney’s Astrophel (1591).]

MY D E L I A hath the waters of mine eyes,

(The ready handmaids on her grace attending)

That never fall to ebb, but ever rise;

For to their flow, she never grants an ending.

Th’ocean never did attend more duly

Upon his Sovereign’s course, the night’s pale Queen;

Nor paid the impost of his waves more truly,

Than mine unto her Deity have been.

Yet nought, the rock of that hard heart can move;

Where beat these tears with zeal, and fury driveth:

And yet, I rather languish in her love,

Than I would joy the fairest she that liveth.

I doubt to find such pleasure in my gaining;

As now I taste, in compass of complaining.