THE PRIMROSE
THE PRIMROSE
Robert Herrick
Ask me why I send you here
This sweet Infanta of the year?
Ask me why I send to you
This Primrose, thus bepearl'd with dew?
I will whisper to your ears,--
The sweets of love are mixt with tears.
Ask me why this flower does show
So yellow-green, and sickly too?
Ask me why the stalk is weak
And bending, yet it doth not break?
I will answer,--these discover
What fainting hopes are in a lover.
Verse breaks and indentation are preserved. Wrapped lines have a hanging indent. Width adapts to your screen.
Public domain text via the PoetryDB open archive.
