| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Soldier Going to the Field | | By Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) |
| | | PRESERVE thy sighs, unthrifty girl! | |
| To purify the air; | |
| Thy tears to thread, instead of pearl, | |
| On bracelets of thy hair. | |
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| The trumpet makes the echo hoarse, | 5 |
| And wakes the louder drum, | |
| Expense of grief gains no remorse, | |
| When sorrow should be dumb. | |
| |
| For I must go where lazy peace | |
| Will hide her drowsy head; | 10 |
| And, for the sport of kings, increase | |
| The number of the dead. | |
| |
| But first I’ll chide thy cruel theft: | |
| Can I in war delight, | |
| Who, being of my heart bereft | 15 |
| Can have no heart to fight? | |
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| Thou knowest the sacred laws of old, | |
| Ordained a thief should pay, | |
| To quit him of his theft, sevenfold | |
| What he had stolen away. | 20 |
| |
| Thy payment shall but double be; | |
| O then with speed resign | |
| My own seducèd heart to me, | |
| Accompanied with thine. | | | | |
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