Edmund Spenser(1552–1599)

Sonnet 1 ("Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands")

Happy ye leaves2 when as those lilly hands,

Which hold my life in their dead doing might3

Shall handle you and hold in loves soft bands,

Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.

And happy lines, on which with starry light,

Those lamping 0 eyes will deigne sometimes to lookshining

And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,spirit

Written with teares in harts 0 close 0 bleeding book.heart's /secret

And happy rymes bath'd in the sacred brooke,

Of Helicon4 whence she derived is,

When ye behold that Angels blessed looke,

My soules long lacked foode, my heavens blis.

Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,

Whom if ye please, I care for other none.