VI.

Be nought dismayd that her unmoved mind

Doth still persist in her rebellious pride:

Such love, not lyke to lusts of baser kynd,

The harder wonne, the firmer will abide.

The durefull oake whose sap is not yet dride

Is long ere it conceive the kindling fyre;

But when it once doth burne, it doth divide

Great heat, and makes his flames to heaven aspire.

So hard it is to kindle new desire

In gentle brest, that shall endure for ever:

Deepe is the wound that dints the parts entire*

With chaste affects, that naught but death can sever.

Then thinke not long in taking litle paine

To knit the knot that ever shall remaine.

[* _Entire_, inward.]

The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 · 第 193 / 327 题