T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Under the Willow Shade
By Sir William Davenant (16061668)(From The Rivals) UNDER the willow shades they were | |
Free from the eye-sight of the sun, | |
For no intruding beam could there | |
Peep through to spy what things were done: | |
Thus sheltered they unseen did lie, | 5 |
Surfeiting on each other’s eye; | |
Defended by the willow shades alone, | |
The sun’s heat they defied and cool’d their own. | |
Whilst they did embrace unspied, | |
The conscious willows seem’d to smile, | 10 |
That they with privacy supplied, | |
Holding the door, as ’twere, the while; | |
And when their dalliances were o’er, | |
The willows, to oblige them more, | |
Bowing, did seem to say, as they withdrew, | 15 |
“We can supply you with a cradle too.” | |