Edmund Spenser

YE learned sisters which haue oftentimesbeene to me ayding, others to adorne:
Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes,
That euen the greatest did not greatly
To heare theyr names sung in your simply layes,

Vt if ye saw that which no eyes can see,
The inward beauty of her liuely spright,
Garnisht with heauenly guifts of high degree,
Much more then would ye wonder at that sight,

Unhappy verse, the witness of my unhappy state, Make thy self flutt'ring wings of thy fast flying Thought, and fly forth unto my love, wheresoever she be: Whether lying restless in heavy bed, or else Sitting so cheerless at the cheerful board, or ...

My  love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How  comes it then that this her cold so
Is  not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But  harder grows the more I her entreat

Pen the temple gates vnto my loue,
Open them wide that she may enter in,
And all the postes adorne as doth behoue,
And all the pillours deck with girlands trim,

HE fell away in her first ages spring,
Whil'st yet her leafe was greene, and fresh her rinde,
And whil'st her braunch faire blossomes foorth did bring,
She fell away against all course of kinde

Ell me ye merchants daughters did ye
So fayre a creature in your towne before,
So sweet, so louely, and so mild as she,
Adornd with beautyes grace and vertues store,

ST glorious Lord of Lyfe
that, on this day,
Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;
And, having harrowd hell, didst bring away Captivity thence captive, us to win:

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat

One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay, A mortal thing ...

Ye learned sisters which have oftentimes Beene to me ayding, others to adorne: Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes, That even the greatest did not greatly scorne To heare theyr names sung in your simple layes, But joyed in theyr prayse<...

When I bethink me on that speech whilere,
Of Mutability, and well it weigh:
Me seems,that though she all unworthy
Of the Heav'ns Rule; yet very sooth to say,