An Anthology of Renaissance Lyrics

Giles Fletcher (1549-1611)

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For biographical background, see Martha Crowe Foote's article on Giles Fletcher, LL.D. (Sonnet Central).

• Licia (1593)  (Sonnet Central)
  • To the Reader
  • I. "Bright matchless star, the honour of the sky"
  • "Sad, all alone, not long I musing sat"
  • II. "Weary was love and sought to take his rest"
  • III. "The heavens beheld the beauty of my queen"
  • IV. "Love and my love did range the forest wild"
  • V. "Love with her hair my love by force hath tied"
  • VI. "My love amazed did blush herself to see"
  • VII. "Death in a rage assaulted once my heart"
  • VIII. "Hard are the rocks, the marble, and the steel"
  • IX. "Love was laid down, all weary fast asleep"
  • X. "A painter drew the image of the boy"
  • XI. "In Ida vale three queens the shepherd saw"
  • XII. "I wish sometimes, although a worthless thing"
  • XIII. "Enamored Jove commanding did entreat"
  • XIV. "My love lay sleeping, where birds music made"
  • XV. "I stood amazed, and saw my Licia shine"
  • XVI. "Grant, fairest kind, a kiss unto thy friend"
  • XVII. "As are the sands, fair Licia, on the shore"
  • XVIII. "I swear, fair Licia, still for to be thine"
  • XIX. "That time, fair Licia, when I stole a kiss"
  • XX. "First did I fear, when first my love began"
  • XXI. "Licia my love was sitting in a grove"
  • XXII. "I might have died before my life begun"
  • XXIII. "My love was masked, and arméd with a fan"
  • XXIV. "Whenas my love lay sickly in her bed"
  • XXV. "Seven are the lights that wander in the skies"
  • XXVI. "I live, sweet love, whereas the gentle wind"
  • XXVII. "The crystal stream wherein my love did swim"
  • XXVIII. "In time the strong and stately turrets fall"
  • XXIX. "Why died I not whenas I last did sleep?"
  • XXX. "Whenas my Licia sailéd in the seas"
  • XXXI. "Whenas her lute is tunéd to her voice"
  • XXXII. "Years, months, days, hours, in sighs I sadly spend"
  • XXXIII. "I wrote my sighs, and sent them to my love"
  • XXXIV. "Pale are my looks, forsaken of my life"
  • XXXV. "Whenas I wish, fair Licia, for a kiss"
  • XXXVI. "Hear how my sighs are echoed of the wind"
  • XXXVII. "I speak, fair Licia, what my torments be"
  • XXXVIII. "Sweet, I protest, and seal it with an oath"
  • XXXIX. "Fair matchless nymph, respect but what I crave"
  • XL. "My grief begun, fair saint, when first I saw"
  • Sonnet Made upon the Two Twins, Daughters of the Lady Mollineux, Both Passing Like, and Exceeding Fair
  • XLI. "If, aged Charon, when my life shall end"
  • XLII. "For if alone thou think to waft my love"
  • XLIII. "Are those two stars, her eyes, my life's light gone"
  • XLIV. "Cruel fair love, I justly do complain"
  • XLV. "There shone a comet, and it was full west"
  • XLVI. "If he be dead, in whom no heart remains"
  • XLVII. "Like Memnon's rock, touched with the rising sun"
  • XLVIII. "I saw, sweet Licia, when the spider ran"
  • XLIX. "If that I die, fair Licia, with disdain"
  • L. "Ah Licia, sigh and say thou art my own"
  • LI. "When first the sun whom all my senses serve"
  • LII. "O sugared talk, wherewith my thoughts do live"