Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

Extracts from The Flowers of Sion: Sonnet: ‘Look how the flower which ling’ringly doth fade’

LOOK how the flower which ling’ringly doth fade,

The morning’s darling late, the summer’s queen,

Spoil’d of that juice which kept it fresh and green,

As high as it did raise, bows low the head:

Right so my life, contentments being dead,

Or in their contraries but only seen,

With swifter speed declines than erst it spread,

And, blasted, scarce now shows what it hath been.

And doth the pilgrim therefore, whom the night

By darkness would imprison on his way,

Think on thy home, my soul, and think aright

Of what yet rests thee of life’s wasting day?

Thy sun posts westward, passed is thy morn,

And twice it is not given thee to be born.