Astrophel And Stella Lyrics

Text : Sir Philip Sidney

Who is it that, this dark night,
underneath my window plaineth ?
It is one who from thy sight
being, ah, exiled, disdaineth
every other vulgar light.

Why, alas, and are you he ?
Be not yet those fancies changed ?
Dear, when you find change in me,
though from me you be estranged,
let my change to ruin be.

Well, in absence this will die :
leave to see, and leave to wonder.
Absence sure will help, if I
can learn how myself to sunder
from what in my heart doth lie.

But time will these thoughts remove;
Time doth work what no man knoweth.
Time doth as the subject prove :
what time still the affection groweth
in the faithful turtle-dove.

What if you new beauties see ?
Will not they stir new affection ?
I will thinkthey pictures be
(image-like, of saint´s perfection)
poorly counterfeiting thee.

But your reason´s purest light
bids you leave no such spite !
Never doth thy beauty flourish
more than in my reason´s sight.