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Poem by Edmund Spenser


Amoretti 20. In vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace


In vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace,
And doe myne humbled hart before her poure,
The whiles her foot she in my necke doth place,
And tread my life downe in the lowly floure*.
And yet the lyon, that is lord of power,
And reigneth over every beast in field,
In his most pride disdeigneth to devoure
The silly lambe that to his might doth yield.
But she, more cruell and more salvage wylde
Than either lyon or the lyonesse,
Shames not to be with guiltlesse bloud defylde,
But taketh glory in her cruelnesse.
  Fayrer then fayrest! let none ever say
  That ye were blooded in a yeelded pray.

[* Floure, floor, ground] 



Edmund Spenser


Edmund Spenser's other poems:
  1. Amoretti 13. In that proud port which her so goodly graceth
  2. Amoretti 46. When my abodes prefixed time is spent
  3. Amoretti 23. Penelope, for her Ulisses sake
  4. Amoretti 42. The love which me so cruelly tormenteth
  5. Amoretti 82. Ioy of my life! full oft for loving you


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