Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne
Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?1618)Reply to Marlowes The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
I
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.
To wayward winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,—
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,—
All those in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.
Had joys no date, nor age no need:
Then those delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.