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Title: To His Valentine
Author: Michael Drayton [
More Titles by Drayton]
Muse, bid the Morn awake,
Sad Winter now declines,
Each Bird doth choose a Make,
This day 's Saint VALENTINE'S;
For that good Bishop's sake
Get up, and let us see,
What Beauty it shall be,
That Fortune us assigns.
But lo, in happy Hour,
The place wherein she lies,
In yonder climbing Tow'r,
Gilt by the glitt'ring Rise;
O LOVE! that in a Show'r,
As once that Thund'rer did,
When he in drops lay hid,
That I could her surprise.
Her Canopy I'll draw,
With spangled Plumes bedight,
No Mortal ever saw
So ravishing a sight;
That it the Gods might awe,
And pow'rfully trans-pierce
The Globy Universe,
Out-shooting ev'ry Light.
My Lips I'll softly lay
Upon her heav'nly Cheek,
Dy'd like the dawning Day,
As polish'd Ivory sleek:
And in her Ear I'll say;
O, thou bright Morning-Star,
'Tis I that come so far,
My Valentine to seek.
Each little Bird, this Tide,
Doth choose her loved Peer,
Which constantly abide
In Wedlock all the year,
As Nature is their Guide:
So may we two be true,
This year, nor change for new,
As Turtles coupled were.
The Sparrow, Swan, the Dove,
Though VENUS Birds they be,
Yet are they not for Love
So absolute as we:
For Reason us doth move;
They but by billing woo:
Then try what we can doo,
To whom each sense is free.
Which we have more than they,
By livelier Organs sway'd,
Our Appetite each way
More by our Sense obey'd:
Our Passions to display,
This Season us doth fit;
Then let us follow it,
As Nature us doth lead.
One Kiss in two let's break,
Confounded with the touch,
But half words let us speak,
Our Lip's imploy'd so much,
Untill we both grow weak,
With sweetness of thy breath;
O smother me to death:
Long let our Joys be such.
Let's laugh at them that choose
Their Valentines by lot,
To wear their Names that use,
Whom idly they have got:
Such poor choice we refuse,
Saint VALENTINE befriend;
We thus this Morn may spend,
Else Muse, awake her not.
[The end]
Michael Drayton's poem: To His Valentine
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