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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  Under the Willow Shade

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Under the Willow Shade

By Sir William Davenant (1606–1668)
 
(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.”