| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | What Doth It Serve to See Sun’s Burning Face | | By William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) |
| | | WHAT doth it serve to see Sun’s burning face, | |
| And skies enamelled with both Indies’ gold? | |
| Or moon at night in jetty chariot rolled, | |
| And all the glory of that starry place? | |
| What doth it serve earth’s beauty to behold,— | 5 |
| The mountains’ pride, the meadows’ flowery grace, | |
| The stately comeliness of forests old, | |
| The sport of floods which would themselves embrace? | |
| What doth it serve to hear the sylvans’ songs, | |
| The wanton merle, the nightingale’s sad strains, | 10 |
| Which in dark shades seem to deplore my wrongs?— | |
| For what doth serve all that this world contains?— | |
| Sith she for whom those once to me were dear | |
| No part of them can have now with me here! | | | | |
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