Ask me why I send to you
This Primrose, thus bepearl’d with dew?
I will whisper to your ears,–
The sweets of love are mixt with tears.
Ask me why this flower does show
So yellow-green, and sickly too?
Ask me why the stalk is weak
And bending, yet it doth not break?
I will answer,–these discover
What fainting hopes are in a lover.
And when I my sins confess,Sweet Spirit, comfort me!When I lie within my bed,Sick in heart, and sick in head,And with doubts discomforted,Sweet Spirit, comfort me!When the house doth sigh and weep,And the world is drown’d in sleep,Yet mine eyes the watch do keep,Sweet Spirit, comfort me!When the artless doctor seesNo one hope, but of…
Must I here stayBecause you’re slow,And will continue so;–Troth, lady, no.I scorn to beA slave to state;And since I’m free,I will not wait,Henceforth at such a rate,For needy fate.If you desireMy spark should glow,The peeping fireYou must blow;Or I shall quickly growTo frost, or snow.
And ye the walks have beenWhere maids have spent their hours.You have beheld how theyWith wicker arks did come,To kiss and bear awayThe richer cowslips home.You’ve heard them sweetly sing,And seen them in a round;Each virgin, like a spring,With honeysuckles crown’d.But now, we see none here,Whose silvery feet did treadAnd with dishevell’d hairAdorn’d this smoother…
Your date is not so past,But you may stay yet here a-while,To blush and gently smile;And go at last.What, were ye born to beAn hour or half’s delight;And so to bid good-night?‘Twas pity Nature brought ye forth,Merely to show your worth,And lose you quite.But you are lovely leaves, where weMay read how soon things haveTheir…
