Sonnet 114
Constancy and the Muse
- 1 Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
- 2 Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?
- 3 Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true,
- 4 And that your love taught it this alchemy,
- 5 To make of monsters and things indigest
- 6 Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble,
- 7 Creating every bad a perfect best,
- 8 As fast as objects to his beams assemble?
- 9 O! 'tis the first, 'tis flattery in my seeing,
- 10 And my great mind most kingly drinks it up:
- 11 Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing,
- 12 And to his palate doth prepare the cup:
- 13 If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin
- 14 That mine eye loves it and doth first begin.