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 | The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman |  |
MADRIGAL
DORUS TO LYCORIS, WHO REPROVED HIM FOR INCONSTANCY
Why should I constant be?
The bird in yonder tree,
This leafy summer,
Hath not his last year's mate,
Nor dreads to venture fate
With a new-comer.
The bird in yonder tree,
This leafy summer,
Hath not his last year's mate,
Nor dreads to venture fate
With a new-comer.
Why should I fear to sip
The sweets of each red lip?
In every bower
The roving bee may taste
(Lest aught should run to waste)
Each fresh-blown flower.
The sweets of each red lip?
In every bower
The roving bee may taste
(Lest aught should run to waste)
Each fresh-blown flower.
The trickling rain doth fall
Upon us one and all;
The south-wind kisses
The saucy milkmaid's cheek,
The nun's, demure and meek,
Nor any misses.
Upon us one and all;
The south-wind kisses
The saucy milkmaid's cheek,
The nun's, demure and meek,
Nor any misses.
Then ask no more of me
That I should constant be
Nor eke desire it;
Take not such idle pains
To hold our love in chains,
Nor coax, nor hire it.
That I should constant be
Nor eke desire it;
Take not such idle pains
380
Nor coax, nor hire it.
Be all things in thyself,—
A sprite, a tricksy elf,
Forever changing,
So that thy latest mood
May ever bring new food
To Fancy ranging.
A sprite, a tricksy elf,
Forever changing,
So that thy latest mood
May ever bring new food
To Fancy ranging.
Forget what thou wast first,
And as I loved thee erst
In soul and feature,
I'll love thee out of mind
When each new morn shall find
Thee a new creature.
And as I loved thee erst
In soul and feature,
I'll love thee out of mind
When each new morn shall find
Thee a new creature.
| The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman | |