Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET: 27. TO THE TUNE OF A NEAPOLITAN VILLANELLA, by PHILIP SIDNEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: 27. TO THE TUNE OF A NEAPOLITAN VILLANELLA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: All my sense thy sweetness gained
Last Line: The less I love, I live the less.


All my sense thy sweetness gained,
Thy fair hair my heart enchained,
My poor reason thy words moved,
So that thee like heaven I loved:
Fa la la leridan, dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
While to my mind the outside stood
For messenger of inward good.

Now thy sweetness sour is deemed,
Thy hair not a hair esteemed;
Reason hath thy words removed,
Finding that but words they proved:
Fa la la leridan, dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
For no fair sign can credit win
If that the substance fail within.

No more in they sweetness glory;
For thy knitting hair be sorry;
Use thy words but to bewail thee,
That no more thy beams avail thee:
Fa la la leridan, dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
Lay not thy colours more to view
Without the picture be found true.

Woe to me, alas, she weepeth:
Fool in me, what folly creepeth?
Was I to blaspheme enraged
Where my soul I have engaged?
Fa la la leridan, dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
And wretched I must yield to this;
The fault I blame her chasteness is.

Sweetness, sweetly pardon folly;
Tie me, hair, your captive wholly;
Words, O words, of heavenly knowledge,
Know my words their faults acknowledge:
Fa la la leridan, dan dan dan deridan,
Dan dan dan deridan deridan dei:
And all my life I will confess,
The less I love, I live the less.





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