Sonnet XIV. Return again, my forces late dismayed

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

RETURN again, my forces late dismayed,

Unto the siege by you abandon’d quite.

Great shame it is to leave, like one afraid,

So fair a piece, for one repulse so light.

’Gainst such strong castles needeth greater might

Than those small forts which ye were wont belay:

Such haughty minds, enur’d to hardy fight,

Disdain to yield unto the first assay.

Bring therefore all the forces that ye may,

And lay incessant battery to her heart;

Plaints, prayers, vows, ruth, sorrow, and dismay;

Those engines can the proudest love convert:

And, if those fail, fall down and die before her;

So dying live, and living do adore her.