Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Chloris or The Complaint of the Passionate Despised Shepheard
William Smith: Sonnet 50
William Smith's sonnet in "Chloris or The Complaint of the
Passionate Despised Shepheard" are basically in Petrarchan
form, using the variant scheme ABBA·ABBA CDCDEE
Colin*
I know that in thy loftie wit
Thou wilt but laugh at these my youthfull lines,
Content I am, they should in silence sit,
Obscured from light, to sing their sad designes:
But that it pleased thy grave shepherdhood
The Patron of my maiden verse to bee,
When I in doubt of raging Enuie stood,
And now I weigh not who shall Chloris see.
For fruit before it comes to full perfection
But blossomes is, as every man doth know:
So these being bloomes, and under thy protection
In time I hope to ripenes more will grow.
And so I leave thee to thy woorthy muse,
Desiring thee all faults here to excuse.
*Collin Cloute refers to Edmund Spenser, a patron of William Smith.
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