Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.

Of His Lady’s Old Age (II.)

Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585)

WHEN very old, at eve, while candles flare,

Chatting and spinning by the fire you sit,

And, marvelling, you hum the lines I writ,

Say: Ronsard sung me once when I was fair.

Then every serving-maid who slumbers there,

Nodding above her task with drowsy wit,

Hearing my name, will rouse at sound of it

And bless your name, your deathless praise declare.

A disembodied ghost, I shall have laid

My bones to rest beneath the myrtle shade,

While you, a crone, crouch o’er the embers’ glow,

Mourning my love, and your sublime disdain;

Live, trust me, wait not for to-morrow’s pain,

But cull to-day life’s roses as they blow.