The Poetry Corner

Astrophel and Stella - Sonnet LXXXVI

By Philip Sidney (Sir)

Alas, whence came this change of lookes? If I Haue chang'd desert, let mine owne conscience be A still-felt plague to selfe-condemning mee; Let woe gripe on my heart, shame loade mine eye: But if all faith, like spotlesse Ermine, ly Safe in my soule, which only doth to thee, As his sole obiect of felicitie, With wings of loue in aire of wonder flie, O ease your hand, treate not so hard your slaue; In iustice paines come not till faults do call: Or if I needs, sweet Iudge, must torments haue, Vse something else to chasten me withall Then those blest eyes, where all my hopes do dwell: No doome should make ones Heau'n become his Hell.