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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  A Blithe and Bonny Country Lass

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

A Blithe and Bonny Country Lass

By Thomas Lodge (1558–1625)
 
(From “Rosalynde,” 1590)

1.    A blith and bonny Country Lass
    Sat sighing on the tender Grass,
    And weeping said, will none come woo her?
A dapper Boy, a lither Swain,
That had a mind her love to gain,        5
    With smiling looks straight came unto her.
 
2.    When as the wanton Girl espied
The means to make herself a Bride,
    She simmer’d much like bonny Nell.
The Swain that saw her very kind,        10
His arms about her body twin’d,
    And said, Fair Lass, how fare ye, well?
 
3.    The Country Lass said, Well forsooth,
But that I have a longing tooth,
    A longing tooth, that makes me cry.        15
Alas, says he, what gars thy grief?
A wound, says she, without relief,
    I fear that I a Maid shall die.
 
4.    If that be all, the Shepherd said,
I’ll make thee Wive it, gentle Maid,        20
    And so recure thy Malady:
On which they kist, with many an Oath,
And ’fore God Pan did light their Troth;
    So to the Church away they hie.
 
5.    And Jove send every pretty Peat,        25
That fears to die of this conceit,
    So kind a Friend to help at last:
Then Maids shall never long again,
When they find ease for such a pain:
    And thus my Roundelay is past.        30