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.

But time drives flocks from fields to fold,
When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains 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 bed of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason totten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral claps 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.
( 1599 )

SIR WALTER RALEIGH 1522 – 1618

Sir Walter Raleigh was a courtier, a statesman, a soldier, and a noted explorer, as well as a poet and a writer of excellent prose. He was Elizabeth’s favorite, but he incurred the enmity of King James, and in 1618 was executed on an old unproved charge of treason. The real grivance was that his men had commited piracy against Spain on an expedition to Guiana.