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Home  »  The Book of Sorrow  »  William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645)

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

Memory

William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645)

SO shuts the marigold her leaves

At the departure of the sun;

So from the honeysuckle sheaves

The bee goes when the day is done;

So sits the turtle when she is but one,

And so all woe, as I since she is gone.

To some few birds kind Nature hath

Made all the summer as one day:

Which once enjoy’d, cold winter’s wrath

As night they sleeping pass away.

Those happy creatures are, that know not yet

The pain to be deprived or to forget.

I oft have heard men say there be

Some that with confidence profess

The helpful Art of Memory:

But could they teach Forgetfulness,

I’d learn; and try what further art could do

To make me love her and forget her too.