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.