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Sonet 22

By Michael Drayton

Topics: classic

An euill spirit your beauty haunts me still,     Where-with (alas) I haue been long possest,     Which ceaseth not to tempt me vnto ill,     Nor giues me once but one pore minutes rest.     In me it speakes, whether I sleepe or wake,     And when by meanes to driue it out I try,     With greater torments then it me doth take,     And tortures me in most extreamity.     Before my face, it layes all my dispaires,     And hasts me on vnto a suddaine death;     Now tempting me, to drown my selfe in teares,     And then in sighing to giue vp my breath:         Thus am I still prouok'd to euery euill,         By this good wicked spirit, sweet Angel deuill.

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"An euill spirit your beauty haunts me still,..."

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Author:Michael Drayton

"An euill spirit your beauty haunts me still,..." by Michael Drayton

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Michael Drayton

About Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton (1563–1631) was an English poet whose "Poly-Olbion" (1612–1622) is a vast topographical poem describing the landscape and legends of England and Wales. His sonnet "Since there's no help" is among the finest of the Elizabethan era.

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"DORILVS in sorrowes deepe,         Autumne waxing ..."

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