Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ARCADIA: SAPPHICS, by PHILIP SIDNEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ARCADIA: SAPPHICS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: If mine eyes can speak to do hearty errand
Last Line: Hope, we do live yet.


If mine eyes can speak to do hearty errand,
Or mine eyes' language she do hap to judge of,

So that eyes' message be of her received,
Hope, we do live yet.

But if eyes fail then, when I most do need them,
Or if eyes' language be not unto her known,
So that eyes' message do return rejected,
Hope, we do both die.

Yet, dying, and dead, do we sing her honor;
So become our tombs monuments of her praise;
So becomes our loss the triumph of her gain;
Hers be the glory.

If the senseless spheres do yet hold a music,
If the swan's sweet voice be not heard, but at death,
If the mute timber when it hath the life lost,
Yieldeth a lute's tune,

Are then human minds privileged so meanly
As that hateful death can abridge them of power
With the voice of truth to record to all worlds
That we be her spoils?

Thus, not ending, ends the due praise of her praise;
Fleshly veil consumes, but a soul hath his life,
Which is held in love, love it is, that hath joined
Life to this our soul.

But if eyes can speak to do hearty errand,
Or mine eyes' language she do hap to judge of,
So that eyes' message be of her received,
Hope, we do live yet.





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