Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

Extract from Hymen’s Triumph

AH! I remember well (and how can I

But evermore remember well) when first

Our flame began, when scarce we knew what was

The flame we felt; when as we sat and sighed

And looked upon each other, and conceived

Not what we ail’d,—yet something we did ail;

And yet were well, and yet we were not well,

And what was our disease we could not tell.

Then would we kiss, then sigh, then look: and thus

In that first garden of our simpleness

We spent our childhood. But when years began

To reap the fruit of knowledge, ah, how then

Would she with graver looks, with sweet stern brow

Check my presumption and my forwardness;

Yet still would give me flowers, still would me show

What she would have me, yet not have me know.