THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE

by: Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

      OME live with me, and be my love;
      And we will all the pleasures prove
      That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
      Woods or steepy mountain yields.

      And we will sit upon the rocks,
      Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
      By shallow rivers, to whose falls
      Melodious birds sing madrigals.

      And I will make thee beds of roses,
      And a thousand fragrant posies;
      A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
      Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle;

      A gown made of the finest wool
      Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
      Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
      With buckles of the purest gold;

      A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
      With coral clasps and amber studs:
      An if these pleasures may thee move,
      Come live with me, and be my love.

      The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
      For they delight each May morning:
      If these delights thy mind may move,
      Then live with me, and be my love.

"The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" is reprinted from Poetica Erotica. Ed. T.R. Smith. New York: Crown Publishers, 1921.

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