Verse > Anthologies > Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. > The Oxford Book of English Verse
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Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
  
Robert Herrick. 1591–1674
  
254. The Primrose
  
ASK me why I send you here 
This sweet Infanta of the year? 
Ask me why I send to you 
This primrose, thus bepearl'd with dew? 
I will whisper to your ears:—         5
The sweets of love are mix'd 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)?  10
I will answer:—These discover 
What fainting hopes are in a lover. 
 
 
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