| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Shall I Come, Sweet Love to Thee | | By Thomas Campion (1567–1620) |
| | | SHALL 1 I come, sweet Love, to thee | |
| When the evening beams are set? | |
| Shall I not excluded be? | |
| Will you find no feignèd let? | |
| Let me not, for pity, more | 5 |
| Tell the long hours at your door. | |
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| Who can tell what thief or foe, | |
| In the covert of the night, | |
| For his prey will work my woe, | |
| Or through wicked foul despite? | 10 |
| So may I die unredrest | |
| Ere my long love be possest. | |
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| But to let such dangers pass, | |
| Which a lover’s thoughts disdain, | |
| ’Tis enough in such a place | 15 |
| To attend love’s joys in vain: | |
| Do not mock me in thy bed, | |
| While these cold nights freeze me dead. | |
| | | Note 1. From Campion’s Third Book of Airs, 1617. “The melodious serenade worthy even of Shelley.” (Bullen.) [back] | | |
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