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Home  »  The Book of Sorrow  »  Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.

‘Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears’

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

From ‘Cynthia’s Revels’

SLOW, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears;

Yet, slower yet; O faintly, gentle springs;

List to the heavy part the music bears;

Woe weeps out her division when she sings.

Droop herbs and flowers;

Fall grief in showers,

Our beauties are not ours;

O, I could still,

Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,

Drop, drop, drop, drop,

Since nature’s pride is now a wither’d daffodil.