| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Under the Willow Shade | | By Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) |
| | (From The Rivals)
UNDER the willow shades they were | |
| Free from the eye-sight of the sun, | |
| For no intruding beam could there | |
| Peep through to spy what things were done: | |
| Thus sheltered they unseen did lie, | 5 |
| Surfeiting on each other’s eye; | |
| Defended by the willow shades alone, | |
| The sun’s heat they defied and cool’d their own. | |
| |
| Whilst they did embrace unspied, | |
| The conscious willows seem’d to smile, | 10 |
| That they with privacy supplied, | |
| Holding the door, as ’twere, the while; | |
| And when their dalliances were o’er, | |
| The willows, to oblige them more, | |
| Bowing, did seem to say, as they withdrew, | 15 |
| “We can supply you with a cradle too.” | | | | |
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