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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  290. Persuasions to Joy: a Song

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

Thomas Carew. 1595?–1639?

290. Persuasions to Joy: a Song

IF the quick spirits in your eye 
Now languish and anon must die; 
If every sweet and every grace 
Must fly from that forsaken face; 
    Then, Celia, let us reap our joys         5
    Ere Time such goodly fruit destroys. 
 
Or if that golden fleece must grow 
For ever free from agèd snow; 
If those bright suns must know no shade, 
Nor your fresh beauties ever fade;  10
    Then fear not, Celia, to bestow 
    What, still being gather’d, still must grow. 
 
Thus either Time his sickle brings 
In vain, or else in vain his wings.