University of Virginia Library

Sonet. 3.

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[From the Sonnets appended to Englands Heroicall Epistles, 1599.]

Many there be excelling in this kind,
Whose well trick'd rimes with all invention swell,
Let each commend as best shall like his minde,
Some Sidney, Constable, some Daniell.
That thus theyr names familiarly I sing,
Let none thinke them disparaged to be,
Poore men with reverence may speake of a King,
And so may these be spoken of by mee;
My wanton verse nere keepes one certaine stay,
But now, at hand; then, seekes invention far,
And with each little motion runnes astray,
Wilde, madding, jocond, & irreguler;
Like me that lust, my honest mery rimes,
Nor care for Criticke, nor regard the times.