| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Love-Letter | | By William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | From “As You Like It,” Act IV. Scene 3 |
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ART thou god to shepherd turned, | |
| That a maiden’s heart hath burned? | |
| Why, thy godhead laid apart, | |
| Warr’st thou with a woman’s heart? | |
| Whiles the eye of man did woo me, | 5 |
| That could do no vengeance to me. | |
| If the scorn of your bright eyne | |
| Have power to raise such love in mine, | |
| Alack, in me what strange effect | |
| Would they work in mild aspect? | 10 |
| Whiles you chid me, I did love; | |
| How then might your prayers move? | |
| He that brings this love to thee, | |
| Little knows this love in me: | |
| And by him seal up thy mind; | 15 |
| Whether that thy youth and kind | |
| Will the faithful offer take | |
| Of me, and all that I can make; | |
| Or else by him my love deny, | |
| And then I’ll study how to die. | 20 | | |
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