The Poetry Corner

Sonnets: Idea LVI An Allusion To The Eaglets

By Michael Drayton

When like an eaglet I first found my love, For that the virtue I thereof would know, Upon the nest I set it forth to prove If it were of that kingly kind or no; But it no sooner saw my sun appear, But on her rays with open eyes it stood, To show that I had hatched it for the air, And rightly came from that brave mounting brood; And when the plumes were summed with sweet desire, To prove the pinions it ascends the skies; Do what I could, it needsly would aspire To my soul's sun, those two celestial eyes. Thus from my breast, where it was bred alone, It after thee is like an eaglet flown.