Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

Extracts from the Poems: Sonnet to Sir W. Alexander

THE LOVE Alexis did to Damon bear

Shall witness’d be to all the woods and plains

As singular, renown’d by neighbouring swains,

That to our relics time may trophies rear:

Those madrigals we sung amidst our flocks,

With garlands guarded from Apollo’s beams,

On Ochills whiles, whiles near Bodotria’s streams,

Are registrate by echos in the rocks.

Of foreign shepherds bent to try the states,

Though I, world’s guest, a vagabond do stray,

Thou mayst that store which I esteem survey,

As best acquainted with my soul’s conceits:

Whatever fate heavens have for me designed,

I trust thee with the treasure of my mind.