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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  121. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Christopher Marlowe. 1564–93

121. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

COME live with me and be my Love, 
And we will all the pleasures prove 
That hills and valleys, dales and fields, 
Or woods or steepy mountain yields. 
 
And we will sit upon the rocks,         5
And see 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;  10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle. 
 
A gown made of the finest wool 
Which from our pretty lambs we pull; 
Fair-linèd slippers for the cold,  15
With buckles of the purest gold. 
 
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.  20
 
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.