Astrophel and Stella: LXXI
by Sir Philip Sidney
Who will in fairest book of nature know
How virtue may best lodg’d 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 thy heart to love,
As fast thy virtue bends that love to good:
But “Ah,” Desire still cries, “Give me some food!”
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Look not in my eyes, for fear poem – A. E. Housman
- Blank Joy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Growltiger’s Last Stand by T. S. Eliot
- Impromtu On Ogareva poem – Alexander Pushkin
- The Iliad: Book VI (excerpt) poem – Alexander Pope
- My Rival by Rudyard Kipling
- Шекспир – У сердца с глазом тайный договор – Сонет 47
- Up The Line by Will McKendree Carleton
- Coming Through The Rye by Robert Burns
- As Vanquish’d Erin by Thomas Moore
- English Literature for Shaping Your Ideas
- O Man by Pawan Kumar
- Mother o’ Mine by Rudyard Kipling
- Николай Глазков – Чингисхан, Батый, Аттила
- Владимир Маяковский – Товарищ Чичерин и тралеры отдает и прочее
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) was an English courtier, statesman, soldier, diplomat, writer, and patron of scholars and poets. He was a godson of Philip II of Spain. Sir Philip Sidney was considered the ideal gentleman of his day. He is also one of the most important poets of the Elizabethan Era.