Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot
Love gave the wound, which while I breathe will bleed;
But known worth did in mine of time proceed,
Till by degrees it had full conquest got:
I saw and liked, I liked but loved not;
I lov’d, but straight did not what Love decreed.
At length to love’s decrees I, forc’d, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partial lot.
Now even that footstep of lost liberty
Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite
I call it praise to suffer tyranny;
And now employ the remnant of my wit
To make myself believe that all is well,
While with a feeling skill I paint my hell.
(Sir Philip Sidney)
More Poetry from Sir Philip Sidney:
Sir Philip Sidney Poems based on Topics: Sense & Perception, Time, Liberty & Freedom, Hell, Tyranny & Despotism, Emotions- Astrophel and Stella: XXIII (Sir Philip Sidney Poems)
- Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show (Sir Philip Sidney Poems)
- Ring Out Your Bells (Sir Philip Sidney Poems)
- The Highway (Sir Philip Sidney Poems)
- Sonnet XIX: On Cupid's Bow (Sir Philip Sidney Poems)
- Sonnet LXXXIV: Highway (Sir Philip Sidney Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Time Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Liberty & Freedom Poems, Hell Poems, Emotions Poems, Tyranny & Despotism PoemsBased on Keywords: repining, muscovite
- One Day And Another: A Lyrical Eclogue - Part IV (Madison Julius Cawein Poems)
- Hudibras - The Lady's Answer to The Knight (Samuel Butler Poems)
- A Congratulatory Epistle From His Holiness The Pope To The Reverend Dr. Snape (Nicholas Amhurst Poems)
- Bristowe Tragedie: Or The Dethe Of Syr Charles Badwin (Thomas Chatterton Poems)
- Queen Mab: Part V. (Percy Bysshe Shelley Poems)