Sunday Poetry - Elizabeth I

This poem has been attributed to Elizabeth I & is supposed to have been written in around 1561 when the Queen had been on the throne for only a few years. As Elizabeth (Coronation portrait from here) was a famously well-educated woman, it's possible that she did write this poem. It fits fairly well with what is known of her feelings about men & marriage & the difficult choice she had to make.

When I was fair and young and favour graced me,
Of many was I sought, their mistress for to be:
But I did scorn them all, and answered them therefore,
'Go, go, go, seek some other where:
Importune me no more.'


How many weeping eyes I made to pine with woe,
How many sighing hearts, I have no skill to show:
Yet I the prouder grew, and answered them therefore,
'Go, go, go, seek some other where:
Importune me no more.'

Then spake fair Venus' son. that proud victorious boy,
And said, 'Fair dame, since that you be so coy,
I will so pluck your plumes that you shall say no more,
'Go, go, go, seek some other where:
Importune me no more.''


When he had spake these words, such change grew in my breast
That neither night nor day, since that, I could take any rest:
Then lo, I did repent that I had said before,
'Go, go, go, seek some other where:
Importune me no more.'