“Alexis, here she stayed”

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

ALEXIS, here she stayed; among these pines,

Sweet hermitress, she did alone repair;

Here did she spread the treasure of her hair,

More rich than that brought from the Colchian mines.

She sate her by these muskèd eglantines,

The happy place the print seems yet to bear;

Her voice did sweeten here thy sugared lines,

To which winds, trees, beasts, birds, did lend their ear.

Me here she first perceived, and here a morn

Of bright carnations did o’erspread her face;

Here did she sigh, here first my hopes were born,

And I first got a pledge of promised grace:

But, ah! what served it to be happy so,

Sith passèd pleasures double but new woe?