William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.
Song: O dear life, when shall it beSir Philip Sidney (15541586)
O
That mine eyes thine eyes shall see,
And in them thy mind discover,
Whether absence have had force
Thy remembrance to divorce
From the image of the lover?
After parting, aught forgot,
Nor debarred from Beauty’s treasure,
Let no tongue aspire to tell
In what high joys I shall dwell:
Only Thought aims at the pleasure.
To take up the place for me;
Long I will not after tarry;
There, unseen, thou may’st be bold,
Those fair wonders to behold,
Which in them my hopes do carry.
Enter bravely everywhere,
Seize on all to her belonging;
But if thou wouldst guarded be,
Fearing her beams, take with thee
Strength of liking, rage of longing.
When my leaping heart will climb
In thy lips to have his biding,
There those roses for to kiss,
Which do breathe a sugared bliss
Opening rubies, pearls dividing.
When I blessèd shall devour
With my greedy lickorous senses
Beauty, music, sweetness, love,
While she doth against me prove
Her strong darts but weak defences.
When with dovelike murmurings,
With glad moaning, passèd anguish,
We change eyes, and heart for heart
Each to other do depart,
Joying till joy makes us languish.
Thy delights my woes increase,
My life melts with too much thinking;
Think no more, but die in me,
Till thou shalt revivèd be,
At her lips my nectar drinking.