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CAELIA: SONNETS: 3, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fairest, when by the rules of palmistry
Last Line: If now you see her that doth love me there?
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, William Of Tavistock
Subject(s): Palmistry; Love


Fairest, when by the rules of palmistry
You took my hand to try if you could guess
By lines therein, if any wight there be
Ordained to make me know some happiness;
I wished that those characters could explain
Whom I will never wrong with hope to win;
Or that by them a copy might be seen,
By you, O love, what thoughts I had within.
But since the hand of Nature did not set
(As providently loth to have it known)
The means to find that hidden alphabet,
Mine eyes shall be th' interpreters alone;
By them conceive my thoughts, and tell me, fair,
If now you see her that doth love me there?






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