| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Vivamus | | By Ben Jonson (1572–1637) |
| | | COME, my Celia, let us prove, | |
| While we may the sports of Love; | |
| Time will not be ours for ever, | |
| He at length our good will sever. | |
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| Spend not then his gifts in vain: | 5 |
| Suns that set may rise again; | |
| But if once we lose this light, | |
| ’Tis with us perpetual night. | |
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| Why should we defer our joys? | |
| Fame and rumour are but toys. | 10 |
| Cannot we delude the eyes | |
| Of a few poor household spies? | |
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| Or his easier ears beguile, | |
| So removèd by our wile? | |
| ’Tis no sin Love’s fruit to steal, | 15 |
| But the sweet theft to reveal: | |
| To be taken, to be seen, | |
| These have crimes accounted been. | | | | |
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