Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Laura—Part I

XXXVII. If white ’s the Moon, thou Laura seem’st as white

Robert Tofte (1561–1620)

IF white ’s the Moon, thou LAURA seem’st as white;

And white ’s the gown which you on body wear.

And if her whitely horns, in calmy night,

She, smoothly gliding, shows to us most clear:

You, in the daytime, more and brighter far

Your beauty show; like bright AURORA’s star.

Like brightness both of you abroad do cast;

Though not effect alike per accidens:

You shine, she shines, your powers eternal last;

But yet between you is great difference.

Her brightness freezeth, causing deadly cold:

Yours doth inflame, and lovely fire doth hold.