The Whole Works of William Browne of Tavistock ... Now first collected and edited, with a memoir of the poet, and notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt, of the Inner Temple |
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 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
Then with those flowres they most of all did prise,
(With all their skill, and in most curious wise
On tufts of Hearbs and Rushes) would they frame
A dainty border round their Shepherds name.
Or Poesies make, so quaint, so apt, so rare,
As if the Muses onely liued there:
And that the after world should striue in vaine
What they then did, to counterfeit againe.
Nor will the Needle nor the Loome e're be
So perfect in their best embroderie,
Nor such composures make of silke and gold,
As theirs, when Nature all her cunning told.
(With all their skill, and in most curious wise
On tufts of Hearbs and Rushes) would they frame
A dainty border round their Shepherds name.
Or Poesies make, so quaint, so apt, so rare,
As if the Muses onely liued there:
And that the after world should striue in vaine
What they then did, to counterfeit againe.
Nor will the Needle nor the Loome e're be
So perfect in their best embroderie,
Nor such composures make of silke and gold,
As theirs, when Nature all her cunning told.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |