Three Girls and Their Talk

From “The Sonnets”

BY a clear well, within a little field

Full of green grass and flowers of every hue,

Sat three young girls, relating (as I knew)

Their loves. And each had twined a bough to shield

Her lovely face; and the green leaves did yield

The golden hair their shadow; while the two

Sweet colors mingled, both blown lightly through

With a soft wind forever stirred and stilled.

After a while one of them said,

“Think you, if, ere the next hour struck,

Each of our lovers should come here to-day,

Think you that we should fly, or feel afraid?”

To whom the others answered, “From such luck

A girl would be a fool to run away.”