The Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That valleys, groves, hills, 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 flower, and a kyrtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our sweet lamb 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;

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my love.

The sheperds' swains shall dance and sing,

For thy delight each May morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my love.

The Nymph's Reply to The Sheperd by Sir Walter Raleigh (1554 - 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.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,

When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;

And Philometh 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.

The gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,

thy cap, thy kyrtle, 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 nor need,

Then these delights might my mind move,

To live with thee and be thy love.