Sonnet 3 Let Dainty Wits

Let dainty wits cry on the sisters nine,    That, bravely mask'd, their fancies may be told;    Or,

Pindar's apes, flaunt they in phrases fine,    Enam'ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold.    Or else let them in statelier glory shine,    Ennobling newfound tropes with problems old;    Or with strange similes enrich each line,    Of herbs or beasts which Ind or Afric hold.    For me, in sooth, no Muse but one I know;  Phrases and problems from my reach do grow,  And strange things cost too dear for my poor sprites.  How then? even thus: in Stella's face I read  What love and beauty be; then all my deed  But copying is, what in her Nature writes.

Form: sonnet: ababababccdeed1. sisters nine: the Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who presided over the various kinds of poetry and other arts.3.

Pindar's apes, flaunt they: as imitators of the Greek poet Pindar, let them proudly show off.