| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Ivy, Holly, and Green Bay | | By Éstienne Jodelle (1532–1573) |
| | Translated by Henry Francis Cary
I LOVE the bay-tree’s never-withering green, | |
| Which nor the northern blast nor hoary rime | |
| Effaceth; conqueror of death and time; | |
| Emblem wherein eternity is seen. | |
| I love the holly and those prickles keen | 5 |
| On his gloss’d leaves that keep their verdant prime; | |
| And ivy too I love, whose tendrils climb | |
| On tree or bower, and weave their amorous screen. | |
| All three I love, which alway green resemble | |
| The immortal thoughts that in my heart assemble | 10 |
| Of thee, whom still I worship night and day. | |
| But straiter far the knot that hath me bound, | |
| More keen my thorns, and greener is my wound, | |
| Than are the ivy, holly, or green bay. | | | | |
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