Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Thomas Carew (1595?1639?)
A Pastoral Dialogue
Shepherd.Nymph.Chorus.
Shep.This mossy bank they pressed.Nym.That aged oak | Did canopy the happy pair | All night from the damp air. Cho. | Here let us sit, and sing the words they spoke, | Till the day, breaking, their embraces broke. Shep. | See, Love, the blushes of the morn appear, | And now she hangs her pearly store, | Robbed from the eastern shore, | In the cowslip’s bell and roses rare; | Sweet, I must stay no longer here! Nym. | Those streaks of doubtful light usher not day, | But show my sun must set; no morn | Shall shine till thou return; | The yellow planets and the grey | Dawn shall attend thee on thy way. Shep. | If thine eyes gild my paths, they may forbear | Their useless shine.Nym.My tears will quite | Extinguish their faint light. Shep. | Those drops will make their beams more clear, | Love’s flames will shine in every tear. Cho. | They kissed and wept, and from their lips and eyes, | In a mixed dew, of briny sweet | Their joys and sorrows meet; | But she cries out.Nym.Shepherd, arise, | The sun betrays us else to spies. Shep. | The winged hours fly fast whilst we embrace, | But when we want their help to meet, | They move with leaden feet. Nym. | Then let us pinion time, and chase | The day forever from this place. Shep. | Hark!Nym.Ay me! stay!Shep.Forever:Nym.No! arise! | We must be gone!Shep.My nest of spice! | Nym.My soul!Shep.My Paradise! Cho. | Neither could say farewell, but through their eyes | Grief interrupted speech with tears’ supplies.
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