Table of Contents / Related Topics
www.sirbacon.org
Pallas Athene
SONNET NO. 79
When I alone did call upon thy aid,
My verse alone had all thy gentle grace,
But now my gracious numbers are decayed
And my sick muse doth give another place
I grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen
Yet what of thee ,thy poet doth invent
He robs thee of and pays it thee again
He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word
From thy behaviour; beauty doth he give
And found it in thy cheek: he can afford
No praise in thee but what in thee doth live.
Then thank him not for that which he doth say
Since what he owes thee, thou thy self doth pay.
Note the repetition of certain words, we find-thy, thy, thy
thy, thy, thy, thy, thee, thee, thee, thee, thee, thee, thee.
This sonnet is addressed to Pallas Athene . Bacon writes
that he alone asked for her aid in writing his sonnets which
have all her gentle grace. That now his muse is sick and his
gracious numbers (his verses) are decayed he grants that she
deserves the travail (labour) of a worthier pen than his. That
what he (the poet) does (invent) devise or contrive he gets from
her-virtue and beauty-which he finds in her to whom he
owes the power of his pen.