The Nymph's Reply to the shepherd

The Nymph's Reply to the shepherd



If all the world and love were young

and truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move,

To live with thee and be thy love.



Times drive the flocks from field to fold,

When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold,

And Philomel becometh dumb;

The rest comlpains of cares to come.



The flowers do fade, and wanton fields

To wayward Winter reckoning yields;

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall



Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,

Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.



Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,

Thy coral clasps and amber studs,

All these in me no means can move,

To come to thee and be thy love.



But could Youth last, and Love still breed,

Had Joys no date, nor Age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move,

To live with thee and be thy love.

---Sir Walter Raleigh