Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

Song betwixt a Shepherd and a Shepherdess

John Dryden (1631–1700)

TELL me, Thyrsis, tell your anguish,

Why you sigh, and why you languish;

When the nymph whom you adore

Grants the blessing

Of possessing,

What can love and I do more?

Think it’s love beyond all measure

Makes me faint away with pleasure;

Strength of cordial may destroy,

And the blessing

Of possessing

Kills me with excess of joy.

Thyrsis, how can I believe you?

But confess, and I’ll forgive you:

Men are false, and so are you.

Never Nature

Framed a creature

To enjoy, and yet be true.

Mine’s a flame beyond expiring,

Still possessing, still desiring,

Fit for Love’s imperial crown;

Ever shining

And refining

Still the more ’tis melted down.

Mine’s a flame beyond expiring,

Still possessing, still desiring,

Fit for Love’s imperial crown;

Ever shining

And refining

Still the more ’tis melted down.