Page:Elizabethan sonnet-cycles.djvu/168



Dream

What time fair Titan in the zenith sat,

And equally the fixèd poles did heat,

When to my flock my daily woes I chat,

And underneath a broad beech took my seat,

The dreaming god which Morpheus poets call,

Augmenting fuel to my Aetna's fire,

With sleep possessing my weak senses all,

In apparitions makes my hopes aspire.

Methought I saw the nymph I would imbrace,

With arms abroad coming to me for help,

A lust-led satyr having her in chase

Which after her about the fields did yelp.

I seeing my love in perplexèd plight,

A sturdy bat from off an oak I reft,

And with the ravisher continue fight

Till breathless I upon the earth him left.

Then when my coy nymph saw her breathless foe,