| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Robert Herrick. 1591–1674 |
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| 254. The Primrose |
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| 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. | |
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| 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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