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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  68. Devotion Captain Tobias Hume’s The First Part of Airs, &c.

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

Anonymous. 1605

68. Devotion Captain Tobias Hume’s The First Part of Airs, &c.

FAIN would I change that note 
To which fond Love hath charm’d me 
Long, long to sing by rote, 
Fancying that that harm’d me: 
Yet when this thought doth come,         5
‘Love is the perfect sum 
    Of all delight,’ 
I have no other choice 
Either for pen or voice 
    To sing or write.  10
 
O Love! they wrong thee much 
That say thy sweet is bitter, 
When thy rich fruit is such 
As nothing can be sweeter. 
Fair house of joy and bliss,  15
Where truest pleasure is, 
    I do adore thee: 
I know thee what thou art, 
I serve thee with my heart, 
    And fall before thee.  20