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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  270. To Meadows

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

Robert Herrick. 1591–1674

270. To Meadows

YE have been fresh and green, 
  Ye have been fill’d with flowers, 
And ye the walks have been 
  Where maids have spent their hours. 
 
You have beheld how they         5
  With wicker arks did come 
To kiss and bear away 
  The richer cowslips home. 
 
You’ve heard them sweetly sing, 
  And seen them in a round:  10
Each virgin like a spring, 
  With honeysuckles crown’d. 
 
But now we see none here 
  Whose silv’ry feet did tread 
And with dishevell’d hair  15
  Adorn’d this smoother mead. 
 
Like unthrifts, having spent 
  Your stock and needy grown, 
You’re left here to lament 
  Your poor estates, alone.  20