Philip Sidney

Sonnet 50. Stella, The Fullness Of My Thoughts

Stella, the fullness of my thoughts of thee
Cannot be stay'd within my panting breast,
But they do swell and struggle forth of me,
Till that in words thy figure be express'd.

And yet as soon as they so formed be,
According to my Lord Love's own behest:
With sad eyes I their weak proportion see,
To portrait that which in this world is best.

So that I cannot choose but write my mind,
And cannot choose but put out what I write,
While these poor babes their death in birth do find:

And now my pen these lines had dashed quite,
But that they stopp'd his fury from the same,
Because their forefront bare sweet Stella's name.