LYRICS OF LOVE FROM SHAKESPEARE TO TENNYSON I. B IN PRAISE of VENUS. EFORE our lady came on earth, Little there was of joy or mirth; Alone within the weaving-room B Unkissed, the merchant bore his care; Or in the stream the maids would stare, Therefore, O Venus, well may we Thou cam'st to take our shame away. Through which thy fine limbs first did pass; The purple-dusted butterfly, First blown against thy quivering thigh ; Born to give peace to souls that strive? William Morris. II. WHAT LOVE IS. THE SHEPHERD'S DESCRIPTION. SHEPHERD, what's love? I pray thee tell.- Yet what is love? I prithee say.-- Hear ten months after of the play; Yet what is love? Good shepherd, sain. It is a sunshine mixed with rain; It is a tooth-ache, or like pain; It is a game where none doth gain; The lass saith no, and would full fain ; And this is love, as I hear sain. Yet, shepherd, what is love, I pray?— It is a yea, it is a nay; A pretty kind of sporting fray; It is a thing will soon away; Then, nymphs, take 'vantage while ye may; And this is love, as I hear say. Yet, what is love? Good shepherd, show.- Sir Walter Raleigh. III. WHAT LOVE is. A SICKNESS FULL OF WOE. LOVE is a sickness full of woes, A plant that most with cutting grows, Why so? More we enjoy it, more it dies; Love is a torment of the mind, And Jove hath made it of a kind Not well, nor full, nor fasting. Why so? More we enjoy it, more it dies; If not enjoyed, it sighing cries, Samuel Daniel. IV. LOVE THE ADVENTURER, Over the mountains And over the waves, Under the fountains And under the graves; Over rocks that are steepest, Where there is no place For the glow-worm to lie; Where the midge dares not venture If Love come, he will enter And soon find out his way. You may esteem him A child for his might; Or you may deem him A coward from his flight; But if she whom love doth honour Love will find out the way. Some think to lose him By having him confined; Poor thing, to be blind; |