Reply  

love
And truth
pretty pleasures
To live with

Time  flocks
When rivers rage
And   dumb;
complains

flowers   fade,
reckoning yields:
a heart of gall,
sorrow’s fall.

beds of roses,
posies,
soon forgotten,
in reason rotten.

belt
clasps and amber studs,–
can move
to thee   thy Love.

youth
Had joys

delights my mind
To live with thee

Original text:

Her Reply by Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy Love.

But Time drives flocks from field to fold;
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward Winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither–soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy-buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,–
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy Love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy Love.

Written for: https://blackcatalleyblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/whiteout-wednesdays-6/