The Poetry Corner

Astrophel and Stella - Sonnet LX

By Philip Sidney (Sir)

When my good Angell guides me to the place Where all my good I doe in Stella see, That heau'n of ioyes throwes onely downe on me Thundring disdaines and lightnings of disgrace; But when the ruggedst step of Fortunes race Makes me fall from her sight, then sweetly she, With words wherein the Muses treasures be, Shewes loue and pitie to my absent case. Now I, wit-beaten long by hardest fate, So dull am, that I cannot looke into The ground of this fierce loue and louely hate. Then, some good body, tell me how I do, Whose presence absence, absence presence is; Blest in my curse, and cursed in my blisse.