| Why, having won her, do I woo? | |
| Because her spirit's vestal grace | |
| Provokes me always to pursue, | |
| But, spirit-like, eludes embrace; | |
| Because her womanhood is such | 5 |
| That, as on court-days subjects kiss | |
| The Queen's hand, yet so near a touch | |
| Affirms no mean familiarness; | |
| Nay, rather marks more fair the height | |
| Which can with safety so neglect | 10 |
| To dread, as lower ladies might, | |
| That grace could meet with disrespect; | |
| Thus she with happy favour feeds | |
| Allegiance from a love so high | |
| That thence no false conceit proceeds | 15 |
| Of difference bridged, or state put by; | |
| Because although in act and word | |
| As lowly as a wife can be, | |
| Her manners, when they call me lord, | |
| Remind me 'tis by courtesy; | 20 |
| Not with her least consent of will, | |
| Which would my proud affection hurt, | |
| But by the noble style that still | |
| Imputes an unattain'd desert; | |
| Because her gay and lofty brows, | 25 |
| When all is won which hope can ask, | |
| Reflect a light of hopeless snows | |
| That bright in virgin ether bask; | |
| Because, though free of the outer court | |
| I am, this Temple keeps its shrine | 30 |
| Sacred to Heaven; because, in short, | |
| She 's not and never can be mine. | |
