COME live with me, and be my love; | |
| And we will all the pleasures prove | |
| That hills and valleys, dales and fields, | |
| Woods, or steepy mountain yields. | |
| |
| And we will sit upon the rocks, | 5 |
| Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks | |
| By shallow rivers, to whose falls | |
| Melodious birds sing madrigals. | |
| |
| And I will make thee beds of roses, | |
| And a thousand fragrant posies; | 10 |
| A cap of flowers, and a kirtle | |
| Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; | |
| |
| A gown made of the finest wool | |
| Which from our pretty lambs we pull; | |
| Fair-lined slippers for the cold, | 15 |
| With buckles of the purest gold; | |
| |
| A belt of straw and ivy-buds, | |
| With coral clasps and amber-studs: | |
| And if these pleasures may thee move, | |
| Come love with me, and be my love. | 20 |
| |
| The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing | |
| For thy delight each May-morning; | |
| If these delights thy mind may move, | |
| Then live with me, and be my love. | |
| |
2. Raleigh’s Reply; before 1599
IF all the world and love were young, | 25 |
| And truth in every shepherd’s tongue, | |
| These pretty pleasures might me move | |
| To live with thee and be thy love. | |
| |
| But time drives flocks from field to fold, | |
| When rivers rage and rocks grow cold; | 30 |
| And Philomel becometh dumb; | |
| The rest complains of cares to come. | |
| |
| The flowers do fade, and wanton fields | |
| To wayward winter reckoning yields: | |
| A honey tongue, a heart of gall, | 35 |
| Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall. | |
| |
| Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, | |
| Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, | |
| Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,— | |
| In folly ripe, in reason rotten. | 40 |
| |
| Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, | |
| Thy coral clasps and amber studs,— | |
| All those in me no means can move | |
| To come to thee and be thy love. | |
| |
| But could youth last, and love still breed; | 45 |
| Had joys no date, nor age no need; | |
| Then those delights my mind might move | |
| To live with thee and be thy love. | |
| |
