XXVIII.

The laurel-leafe which you this day doe weare

Gives me great hope of your relenting mynd:

For since it is the badge which I doe beare*,

Ye, bearing it, doe seeme to me inclind.

The powre thereof, which ofte in me I find,

Let it likewise your gentle brest inspire

With sweet infusion, and put you in mind

Of that proud mayd whom now those leaves attyre:

Proud Daphne, scorning Phœbus lovely** fyre,

On the Thessalian shore from him did flie;

For which the gods, in theyr revengefull yre,

Did her transforme into a laurell-tree.

Then fly no more, fayre Love, from Phebus chace,

But in your brest his leafe and love embrace.

[* I. e. as poet-laureate.]

[** _Lovely_, loving.]

The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 · 第 215 / 327 题