Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Amoretti and Epithalamion

Sonnet LXXX. After so long a race as I have run

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

AFTER so long a race as I have run

Through Faery land, which those six books compile,

Give leave to rest me being half foredone,

And gather to myself new breath awhile.

Then, as a steed refreshed after toil,

Out of my prison I will break anew;

And stoutly will that second work assoil,

With strong endeavour and attention due.

Till then give leave to me, in pleasant mew

To sport my muse, and sing my love’s sweet praise;

The contemplation of whose heavenly hue,

My spirit to a higher pitch will raise:

But let her praises yet be low and mean,

Fit for the handmaid of the Faery Queen.