Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Anonymous. 1557
54. To Her Sea-faring Lover Tottel’s Miscellany ? by John Heywood
SHALL I thus ever long, and be no whit the neare? | |
And shall I still complain to thee, the which me will not hear? | |
Alas! say nay! say nay! and be no more so dumb, | |
But open thou thy manly mouth and say that thou wilt come: | |
Whereby my heart may think, although I see not thee, | 5 |
That thou wilt come—thy word so sware—if thou a live man be. | |
The roaring hugy waves they threaten my poor ghost, | |
And toss thee up and down the seas in danger to be lost. | |
Shall they not make me fear that they have swallowed thee? | |
—But as thou art most sure alive, so wilt thou come to me. | 10 |
Whereby I shall go see thy ship ride on the strand, | |
And think and say Lo where he comes and Sure here will he land: | |
And then I shall lift up to thee my little hand, | |
And thou shalt think thine heart in ease, in health to see me stand. | |
And if thou come indeed (as Christ thee send to do!) | 15 |
Those arms which miss thee now shall then embrace [and hold] thee too: | |
Each vein to every joint the lively blood shall spread | |
Which now for want of thy glad sight doth show full pale and dead. | |
But if thou slip thy troth, and do not come at all, | |
As minutes in the clock do strike so call for death I shall: | 20 |
To please both thy false heart and rid myself from woe, | |
That rather had to die in troth than live forsaken so! | |