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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Montanus’ Vow

Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)

FIRST shall the heavens want starry light,

The seas be robbèd of their waves;

The day want sun, the sun want bright,

The night want shade and dead men graves;

The April, flowers and leaf and tree,

Before I false my faith to thee.

First shall the tops of highest hills

By humble plains be overpry’d;

And poets scorn the Muses’ quills,

And fish forsake the water-glide;

And Iris lose her colour’d weed

Before I fail thee at thy need.

First direful Hate shall turn to Peace,

And Love relent in deep disdain;

And Death his fatal stroke shall cease,

And Envy pity every pain;

And Pleasure mourn, and Sorrow smile,

Before I talk of any guile.

First Time shall stay his stayless race,

And Winter bless his brows with corn;

And snow bemoisten July’s face,

And Winter spring and summer mourn,

Before my pen by help of Fame

Cease to recite thy sacred name.