Astrophil
and Stella, Sonnet
71
Who will in fairest book of Nature know
How virtue may best lodged in
beauty be,
Let him but learn of love to read
in thee,
Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show.
There shall he find all vices’ overthrow,
Not by rude force, but sweetest
sovereignty
Of reason, from whose light those
night-birds fly;
That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so.
And not content to be perfection's
heir
Thyself, dost strive all minds that way to move,
Who mark in thee what is in thee most fair;
So while thy beauty draws the heart to love,
As fast thy virtue bends that love
to good.
But, ah, Desire still cries: “Give
me some food.”