Part 21 (1/2)

191. TO CARNATIONS: A SONG

Stay while ye will, or go, And leave no scent behind ye: Yet trust me, I shall know The place where I may find ye.

Within my Lucia's cheek, (Whose livery ye wear) Play ye at hide or seek, I'm sure to find ye there.

192. TO PANSIES

Ah, Cruel Love! must I endure Thy many scorns, and find no cure?

Say, are thy medicines made to be Helps to all others but to me?

I'll leave thee, and to Pansies come: Comforts you'll afford me some: You can ease my heart, and do What Love could ne'er be brought unto.

193. HOW PANSIES OR HEARTS-EASE CAME FIRST

Frolic virgins once these were, Overloving, living here; Being here their ends denied Ran for sweet-hearts mad, and died.

Love, in pity of their tears, And their loss in blooming years, For their restless here-spent hours, Gave them hearts-ease turn'd to flowers.

194. WHY FLOWERS CHANGE COLOUR

These fresh beauties, we can prove, Once were virgins, sick of love, Turn'd to flowers: still in some, Colours go and colours come.

195. THE PRIMROSE

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.

196. TO PRIMROSES FILLED WITH MORNING DEW

Why do ye weep, sweet babes? can tears Speak grief in you, Who were but born just as the modest morn Teem'd her refres.h.i.+ng dew?

Alas, you have not known that shower That mars a flower, Nor felt th' unkind Breath of a blasting wind, Nor are ye worn with years; Or warp'd as we, Who think it strange to see, Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young, To speak by tears, before ye have a tongue.