Lackyng my loue I go from place to place ...

Lacking my loue I go from place to place,

Like a young fawn that late hath lost the hind:

And seek each where, where last I saw her face,

Whose image yet I carry fresh in mind.

I seek the fields with her late footing signed,

I seek her bower with her late presence decked,

Yet nor in field nor bower I her can find:

Yet field and bower are full of her aspect.

But when mine eyes I thereunto direct,

They idly back return to me again,

And when I hope to see their true object,

I find myself but fed with fancies vain.

Cease then mine eyes, to seek herself to see,

And let my thoughts behold herself in me.

 

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), Amoretti - Sonnet LXXVIII

Done