THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE SHEPHERD

THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE SHEPHERD

Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,

And the 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 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 heat of gall

In 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 winter, 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 with thee and be thy love

But could youth last and love still bread,

Had joys no date, nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move

To live with thee and be thy love.