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

Sir William Davenant (1606–1668)

Song: ‘The lark now leaves his watery nest’

THE LARK now leaves his watery nest,

And climbing shakes his dewy wings,

He takes your window for the east,

And to implore your light, he sings;

Awake, awake, the moon will never rise,

Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.

The merchant bows unto the seaman’s star,

The ploughman from the sun his season takes;

But still the lover wonders what they are,

Who look for day before his mistress wakes:

Awake, awake, break through your veils of lawn!

Then draw your curtains and begin the dawn.