This poem is a reply to the invitation in yesterday's post "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" by Christopher Marlowe

HER REPLY

Walter Raleigh 1552-1618

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 field 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 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. 

-o0o-