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 |  |
As (woo'd by Mayes delights) I haue beene borne
To take the kinde ayre of a wistfull morne
Neere Tauies voicefull streame (to whom I owe
More straines then from my Pipe can euer flowe):
Here haue I heard a sweet Bird neuer lin
To chide the Riuer for his clam'rous din;
There seem'd another in his song to tell,
That what the faire streame did he liked well;
And going further heard another too,
All varying still in what the others doe;
A little thence, a fourth with little paine
Con'd all their lessons, and them sung againe;
So numberlesse the Songsters are that sing
In the sweet Groues of the too-carelesse Spring,
That I no sooner could the hearing lose
Of one of them, but straight another rose,
And perching deftly on a quaking spray,
Nye tyr'd her selfe to make her hearer stay,
Whilst in a bush two Nightingales together
Shew'd the best skill they had to draw me thither:
So (as bright Thetis past our cleeues along)
This shepherds lay pursu'd the others song,
And scarce one ended had his skilfull stripe,
But streight another tooke him to his Pipe.
To take the kinde ayre of a wistfull morne
Neere Tauies voicefull streame (to whom I owe
More straines then from my Pipe can euer flowe):
Here haue I heard a sweet Bird neuer lin
To chide the Riuer for his clam'rous din;
There seem'd another in his song to tell,
That what the faire streame did he liked well;
And going further heard another too,
All varying still in what the others doe;
A little thence, a fourth with little paine
Con'd all their lessons, and them sung againe;
So numberlesse the Songsters are that sing
In the sweet Groues of the too-carelesse Spring,
That I no sooner could the hearing lose
Of one of them, but straight another rose,
And perching deftly on a quaking spray,
Nye tyr'd her selfe to make her hearer stay,
Whilst in a bush two Nightingales together
Shew'd the best skill they had to draw me thither:
So (as bright Thetis past our cleeues along)
This shepherds lay pursu'd the others song,
And scarce one ended had his skilfull stripe,
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| The Whole Works of William Browne | |