Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SONNET, by SIDNEY GODOLPHIN



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SONNET, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Madam, 'tis true, your beauties move
Last Line: Reward for his delight?
Subject(s): Love - Unrequited


MADAM, 'tis true, your beauties move
My heart to a respect,
Too little to be paid with love,
Too great for your neglect:
I neither love, nor yet am sure,
For though the flame I find
Be not intense in the degree,
'Tis of the purest kind:
It little wants of love but pain,
Your beauties take my sense,
And lest you should that pride disdain
My thoughts feel th' influence;
'Tis not a passion's first access
Ready to multiply,
But like love's calmest state it is
Possessed with victory:
It is, like love, to truth reduced,
All the false values gone,
Which were created and induced
By fond imagination:
'Tis either fancy or 'tis fate
To love you more than I,
I love you at your beauties' rate,
Less were an injury.
Like unstamped gold I weigh each grate,
So that you may collect
Th' intrinsic value of your fate
Safely from my respect:
And this respect could merit love,
Were not so fair a sight
Payment enough, for who dares move
Reward for his delight?





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net