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11.5: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

  • Page ID
    58772
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    By Christopher Marlowe

    THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.

    Come live with me and be my love,
    And we will all the pleasures prove
    That hills and vallies, dales 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 cup of flowers and a kirtle
    Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

    A gown made of the finest wooll
    Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
    Fair-linèd slippers for the cold,
    With buckles of the purest gold.

    A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
    With coral clasps and amber studs;
    An if these pleasures may thee move,
    Come live with me, and be my love.

    The shepherd-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.

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