The Blossom
- Little think'st thou, poor flower,
- Whom I've watch'd six or seven days,
- And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour
- Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise,
- And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough,
- Little think'st thou,
- That it will freeze anon, and that I shall
- To-morrow find thee fallen, or not at all.
- Little think'st thou, poor heart,
- That labourest yet to nestle thee,
- And think'st by hovering here to get a part
- In a forbidden or forbidding tree,
- And hopest her stiffness by long siege to bow,
- Little think'st thou
- That thou to-morrow, ere the sun doth wake,
- Must with the sun and me a journey take.
- But thou, which lovest to be
- Subtle to plague thyself, wilt say,
- Alas! if you must go, what's that to me?
- Here lies my business, and here I will stay
- You go to friends, whose love and means present
- Various content
- To your eyes, ears, and taste, and every part;
- If then your body go, what need your heart?
- Well then, stay here; but know,
- When thou hast stay'd and done thy most,
- A naked thinking heart, that makes no show,
- Is to a woman but a kind of ghost.
- How shall she know my heart; or having none,
- Know thee for one?
- Practice may make her know some other part;
- But take my word, she doth not know a heart.
- Meet me in London, then,
- Twenty days hence, and thou shalt see
- Me fresher and more fat, by being with men,
- Than if I had stay'd still with her and thee.
- For God's sake, if you can, be you so too;
- I will give you
- There to another friend, whom we shall find
- As glad to have my body as my mind.
From: Songs and Sonnets, 1633.
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