Poem by Michael Drayton

Sonnet 56. When like an Eaglet I First Found My Love

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 say my Sun appear,
But on her rays with open eyes it stood,
To show that I had hatch'd it for the air
And rightly came from that brave mounting brood;
And, when the plumes were summ'd* with sweet desire, [fully feathered]
To prove the pinions it ascends the skies;
Do what I could, it needsly* would aspire  [of necessity]
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.

1. Sonnet 47. In Pride of Wit
2. Sonnet 23. Love, Banish'd Heav'n
3. Roc
4. Sonnet 14. If He From Heav'n
5. Sonnet 27. Is not Love

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