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Wedding Poems
May
24, 2003
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The
Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe, 1599
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Her
Reply
Sir Walter Raleigh, 1600
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The
Shepherd's Pledge
David Kish, May 24, 2003
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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. |
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. |
The
world and love are young, I say,
For those whose love lasts day to day.
And a shepherd's pledge can only be,
Proved over time, repeatedly. |
And
we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals. |
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. |
Time
heeds,- in that we make it so
Should love's delights be all we know.
Let rivers rage, let rocks grow cold!
The cares to come, love shall uphold. |
And
I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; |
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 flora that
o'er the seasons fade
Endure as signs of pacts we've made.
Thy fancies and thy sorrows too
Are surpassed by love professed anew.
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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; |
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. |
Yes,
pretty pleasures fade and dim
As folly's cause and reason's whim.
And query's doubt, our lives contain.
Yet trust in us, shall thus remain. |
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. |
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. |
As
love touches two and plants its seed,
Joys have no date, age has no need.
And in these means, two souls be one
For endless bonds shan't be undone. |
The
shepherds' 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. |
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. |
I
vow this day and you shall see,
A youthful love does breed in me.
And if this pledge thy heart may move,
Come live with me and be my love. |
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