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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  133. Sweet-and-Twenty

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Shakespeare. 1564–1616

133. Sweet-and-Twenty

O MISTRESS mine, where are you roaming? 
O, stay and hear! your true love ‘s coming, 
  That can sing both high and low: 
Trip no further, pretty sweeting; 
Journeys end in lovers meeting,         5
  Every wise man’s son doth know. 
 
What is love? ’tis not hereafter; 
Present mirth hath present laughter; 
  What ‘s to come is still unsure: 
In delay there lies no plenty;  10
Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty! 
  Youth ‘s a stuff will not endure.